


Show Me the Stars

by kyoloren



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canonical Age Difference, Car Sex, Daddy Kink, Dirty Talk, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Just too damn shy, Mild workspace sexual harassment, Mutual Pining, NASA, Nasa prodigy Rey, No student/teacher relationship, Professor Ben Solo, Secret Relationship, Secret dating, Semi-Public Sex, Shy in the sheets beast in the sheets, Smut, Very light choking but it's there, background Finn/Rose, communication is key, desperate pining, i don't know anything about science, science talk, so much sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:28:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24380548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyoloren/pseuds/kyoloren
Summary: Rey Johnson is the youngest engineer working at Skywalker Space Station. Ben Solo is the youngest graduate physics professor at Chandrila University. They meet by chance more than once--whether it be by fate or destiny or some force out in the cosmos--and the rest? The rest is up to them.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 184
Kudos: 243





	1. I.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!
> 
> This fic has been a long time coming. 6 weeks or so to be exact. I made a poll on my twitter a while back asking my followers to create a fic for me and I would write it for them! These were the winners:
> 
> Modern au!  
> Fluff (with smut because it's me)  
> NASA protege!Rey  
> Professor!Ben  
> Desperate Pining  
> Just Too Damn Shy  
> Secret Dating  
> Daddy Kink
> 
> For some reason, the fic refused to be written, so it's been sitting and waiting. I've finally nailed it and I'm so happy to share it all with you!
> 
> I'll be posting one chapter a day until the fic is finished. It would mean the world to me if you left comments telling me what you think. 
> 
> And without further ado, onto the fic!

* * *

**I.**

The first time Rey saw him, it was at the Space Center.

There were only occasional times when the Skywalker Space Center was quiet. And a Thursday afternoon was not it. There were school tours today and there were children all over the exhibition floor. An IMAX movie was playing in the auditorium, halfway through an hour long documentary. A small gaggle of kids were building their own rovers on the second floor. A group of siblings were fighting to try out the cockpit simulator. There was a line for the Zero-Gravity chair.

Rey Johnson, proudly wearing her twenty dollar _NASA_ shirt from Target and a lanyard badge with her name on it, was guiding her middle school group through the big room. They paused at the cut-away of the inside of the Space Station. There were life-sized dummies situated in the space.

“Does anyone know what this is?” she asked the group of eleven year olds. About ten voices piped up, most of them correct. “That’s right! This is a model of what the inside of the Space Station looks like. Can you imagine this being your home for months on end?”

“It looks big to me,” one kid said.

Rey laughed. “Well, you’re a lot smaller than most of our astronauts. It’s cramped quarters, but there’s a lot of stuff in there with them. There are scientific experiments in rooms, sleeping quarters that are a little like cocoons, a bathroom—“

Some of the boys started to snicker and whisper about floating pee.

“And even a gym! Without the weight of gravity like on Earth, it doesn’t take long for your muscles to start to deteriorate, so we keep our astronauts in shape by making sure they exercise.”

Rey glanced to her side and spotted Finn, the lead tour guide on the floor. He and Jessica Pava were getting themselves ready to herd the kids to the cafeteria. Rey flashed the group a big smile. “Okay, pop quiz before lunch. Who was the first man on the moon?”

“Anakin Skywalker!” everyone yelled.

“That’s right. What year did the first human go into space?” A murmur. “I mentioned it just a little while ago…”

“1961!” a girl with afro-puffs called out.

“Correct! And who are the astronauts currently on the Space Station right now? Does anyone want to guess?”

Another round of mumbles. “Rex Morrison,” one of the teachers said.

“Yes, very good,” Rey said with just as much enthusiasm as if a child had answered. “He’s a seasoned astronaut, it’s his third, and probably last, time in space. He’s up there right now with first time space-walkers, Bo Katan and Beaumont Kin. They’re doing experiments with plants, to see if we can have sustainable plant growth in space! Which is crazy right?”

Her enthusiasm was contagious and kids _loved_ space. They all agreed with her.

Rey slapped her hands together. “Great! Speaking of plants…is anyone hungry? We have lunch all set up for you. Who wants to try freeze-dried ice cream?!”

A chorus of _YESSS_ and _MEEE!_ filled the air and Rey stepped aside and waved to the awaiting Finn and Jess. They had smiles on their faces and funneled the kids through the big open doorway. Rey gave smaller smiles to the three teachers who followed.

Rey took a moment to enjoy the relative silence when she heard a voice. It called her attention immediately and she stopped, hands paused halfway to her hair. She let her hands drop and walked around the Space Station display to follow it. 

It wasn’t really a surprise to see a group of adults gathered on the floor here. This place was geared toward kids, but it was also the front of an actual working Space Center, where scientists, engineers and all various kinds of nerds worked and thrived.

Rey spotted her boss, Jannah Calrissian, standing among one such group. The older woman stood with poise in her black flats, her beautiful hair pulled back from her face and haloing around her head. She met Rey’s eyes and waved her over to join her and the others in the group.

With peppy steps, Rey stepped closer, her eyes sweeping over the taller of the two men. His hair was longer than she usually liked on a man, and dark, almost black. His face was unconventionally attractive in a way that made Rey instantly wanted to know more about him. And _his voice_. He said something and laughed as she approached and her heart soared as if it had waited a lifetime to hear that sound.

Rey was not a hopeless romantic person. She spent her nights watching COSMOS while drinking a cosmo cocktail she was too young to drink in the States, and her best friends consisted of her coworkers. She had been in school her entire life, finished her Masters at eighteen and was months away from getting a PhD at twenty. She did _not_ have these sweeping romantic thoughts.

And yet…

“This is Ben Solo,” Jannah introduced, her arm jostling Rey’s shoulder accidentally.

Rey swallowed hard and shook his outstretched hand. It was big and warm and she hoped her grip wasn’t too limp. She smiled at him nervously. He gave her a small smile in return as the second man was introduced and Rey’s attention was grabbed for another reason.

“I’m sure you know,” Jannah continued, “this is Doctor Ackbar.”

Rey had been so caught up in this tall, dark dressed man that she had somehow— _somehow—_ completely missed the shorter man. She immediately recognized the world famous Doctor Ackbar; a short, round faced man who was responsible for enough scientific discovery that she was, for the first time in the life, speechless.

“It’s great to meet you,” the man said, shaking Rey’s hand. “I’ve been following your achievements. You have a great future ahead of you, Miss Johnson.”

“Thank you, sir,” Rey said, finally able to speak. She hoped he couldn’t tell that there were tears in the corners of her eyes. She blinked a few times and hoped they wouldn’t fall. Her chest was tight and heavy with awe and pride.

Doctor Ackbar smiled at her and looked up at Ben. “Tell her about yourself, Ben,” he prodded. Rey got the feeling that they knew each other well, even as the taller man fidgeted in place.

“I’m just a physics professor at CU.”

“ _Just_ a physics professor? He undersells himself,” Ackbar said, clapping the hand on Ben’s shoulder. “This kid’s a genius. Youngest graduate professor at CU. Doctorate, but don’t call him on it.”

Ben Solo, whoever he was, blushed to the tips of his ears sticking out of his hair. Either he was modest or embarrassed. Rey found it kind of endearing and knocked down her romantic fantasy a notch now that she’d seen him act deceptively human.

“It’s great to meet you both,” Rey said, grinning wide. Her scientist brain couldn’t help but be stunned to see Doctor Ackbar _here_ of all places! She was talking with one of her role models. “Can I venture to ask why you’re here exactly?”

“A quick tour. Seeing the sights,” Ackbar replied. “I’ve been working in California for some time now, and Solo is an old family friend so I convinced him to bring me to my old stomping grounds. Haven’t been here since I worked on the last shuttle.”

“It was a few shuttles ago, actually, Doctor,” Jannah pointed out with good humor.

The older gentleman bopped the side of his head with his fist. “Ah yes, of course,” he replied with a twinkle in his eye.

Rey’s eyes flickered to Ben Solo, who looked like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself, standing in a huddle of scientific minds even though she had heard him talking before she got here. She hoped her presence hadn’t put him off; she knew she was young, but she could keep up with any conversation they could have been having.

She was about to direct a question at Ben when an unhappy child let out an ear-piercing wail. The three of them winced, but Rey was accustomed to it.

“And that’s my cue,” she said with a soft huff of a laugh. She hesitated. “It was amazing meeting you, I wish I could stay and talk longer.”

“No matter,” the Doctor said, as if they were old friends. “It was lovely to meet you and I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” He tapped the side of his nose as if to tell her that he would be seeing or speaking to her again soon.

“Thank you,” Rey said, slightly breathless. She glanced between the three of them, said a rushed, “Goodbye,” and bolted off to take care of whatever she could with her bright smile and people skills.


	2. II.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A second fateful meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all the support for the first chapter on here and on twitter! Things between our shy Professor and whip-smart engineer will continue to escalate in each chapter ;)

**II.**

The second time she saw Ben Solo, she was on the verge of sweating through her outfit and was certain she looked like a complete mess, but that didn’t stop her.

It was days after their first meeting and Rey was lost. 

She didn’t do very much in her life. She went to work, she sat at home, she worked on her PhD thesis, and once a week she went out with her work-friend Rose and Rose’s roommate Kaydel, and _sometimes_ Finn from work too, who wouldn’t admit that he and Rose were dating. (They totally were.) Rey didn’t mind her structured, solitary life, and she wasn’t complaining, but it just made this morning stressful.

Rey had meetings in the city and she didn’t drive. She had to take a cab to a bus stop and then a bus to a part of a city she had never been before, got lost, got another cab and finally got to her meeting with four minutes to spare. Luckily, her black top hid any sweaty armpits and she had a flawless meeting with three very important people who held her academic future in their hands.

The stress of the meetings was gone, but now she was trying to figure out how to get back home and failing. It was noon, and her stomach rumbled as she walked aimlessly down a busy street. She had her phone pulled up, trying to follow a map, grinding her teeth together and grumbling under her breath.

She was about to text Rose in the hopes that she was on her lunch break, when Rey paused on the sidewalk glanced up. By chance, she was in front of a cafe with floor-to-ceiling windows street side. It was a cafe like any other: wooden floor, small tables and chairs scattered around, tattoo’d youth working behind the counter.

Rey was about to brush it off for a place that would have a more substantial menu when she spotted a familiar face. 

Ben Solo, the Physics professor who was with Doctor Ackbar, was sitting there at a table by himself, sipping from a white latte cup and reading a book.

Rey hesitated. It wasn’t like they _knew_ each other. She had been utterly struck by him—he’d even managed to sneak into one of her dreams but what he was doing there was a little fuzzy—and yet as soon as she arrived, he seemed to have gotten uncomfortable. She felt kind of bad about it and so she decided to go in and apologize. If she happened to get lunch while she was in there, so be it.

She walked up to the door and had to awkwardly wait for a group of five people to walk out first before she stepped in. Putting her phone in her mini-backpack and smoothing down her pencil skirt, she walked up to his table.

Rey almost said _Doctor_ but luckily she caught herself—a nugget of information by way of Ackbar came to mind just in time: “ _Doctorate, but don’t call him on it_ ”. She wondered for a brief moment why he didn’t like the title, but it wasn’t really her place to judge. She cleared her throat and tried a different tactic. “Excuse me, Professor Solo?”

Ben glanced up to see a young woman standing before him. Lost in the swirl of the book in his hand, he wondered for a moment if she was one of his students, before his head cleared and his memory returned. She was someone he’d met recently while showing Ackbar around his old stomping grounds. His brows furrowed slightly. “Rey…Johnson, correct?” he asked, half standing.

“Yeah, that’s me,” she said before promptly seating herself in the chair opposite him. He sat back down, his book held open against the tabletop with splayed fingers. “Sorry, I was walking by and noticed you. I wanted to apologize.”

His frown deepened. “Apologize?” He was a little distracted with how brightly her eyes shone and how soft her hair looked.

“I feel like I made you uncomfortable, at the Space Center,” Rey explained, leaning against the table with crossed arms. “I heard the three of you talking before I walked up and then you seemed put off that I was there.”

She actually sounded concerned at that rather than peeved about it, though Ben immediately felt a flood of embarrassment come over him. Had he really been that obvious? He had seen her, stunning even in that cheap blue t-shirt, and he had lost all pretense to thought. Which never happened to him. He was very good at controlling his base impulses.

Rey continued, “I’m glad I spotted you. I never come to this part of the city and I was outside stressing about how to get back to work and saw you sitting here. Oh shit, I’m sorry, I’m totally interrupting your lunch or whatever and rambling.”

Rey went on and on and on and Ben didn’t even really mind. It was kind of charming, if not a little alarming. She kept her eyes on him the entire time, unafraid to meet his gaze, something that was severely lacking in society as a whole he thought. The eyes could express so much.

“It’s okay,” Ben insisted once she sat back, a bit of a blush across her cheeks. It made her freckles stand out even more. “I was just taking a breather, reading.” He lifted the book, leaving a finger inside the pages to mark where he was. He gave Rey a small smile of assurance that she hadn’t crashed his lunch.

He tried really fucking hard to keep his eyes on her face. He was a god damn gentleman and he wasn’t going to let himself slip because she sat forward a little and her collar pulled away from her neck—

"Mary Oliver?" Rey tilted her head to read the cover. "Not what I'd expect."

Ben shrugged a shoulder, thankful for the excuse of a distraction. He was starting to get embarrassed at _himself_. ”Sometimes it's nice to read something so thoroughly about the human condition. Poetry has no equations and makes no sense and I love it.”

Rey smiled, the warmth of it reaching her eyes. “I never thought of it like that. If I ever have a spare moment to read I like a good steamy romance.” 

The words hung in the air and her eyes widened slightly, a blush tinging her cheeks. Her eyes flashed down to the book, which led to her looking at his hands. He had very nice hands. And they were large which she remembered from their first meeting. His fingers were big, and his palm was almost wider than the book.

Just as she was about to blurt out something even more stupid, Ben’s phone vibrated against the table, making them both jump. The moment unfroze, and Ben reached for his phone as Rey slid her chair back.

“I’ve got to—” he said.

“I’ll just—” she said, getting to her feet. “Sorry, again.” She turned on her heel and rushed out of the cafe, leaving Ben perplexed.

He answered his phone with a gruff. “What?”

“Hello to you, too,” Gwen Phasma’s voice came through the phone.

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shit, sorry, Phasma. What is it?”

“Not that I’m your secretary—” She wasn’t, she was the undergraduate dean of the Physics department. “But one of your students is here.”

Ben pushed the pads of his fingers against his eyelids. “Which one?” This was his first semester teaching undergrad and he already hated it. It wasn’t the students’ fault, but he was thinking that he wasn’t cut out for it. The office hours alone were about to run his ragged and it was only the beginning of October.

“Ezra Bridger,” Gwen said. “He looks like a wreck.”

Ben sighed. “Can’t you help him? I’m not back on campus until two. It says it right on the syllabus when my office hours are.”

There was a long pause on Gwen’s end of things. “You’re lucky we’re friends, Solo. I’ll handle this today, but no more long off-campus breaks, not this semester.”

“I’m going to put in a formal plea for Amilyn not to put my name in the pool for undergrad in the spring.”

Gwen scoffed. “Such privilege. Most people would jump on more classes.”

“Then find one of those people,” Ben muttered.

“I will! And I will take care of Mr. Bridger. But know that you owe me. Big time.”

“Whatever you want,” Ben said sincerely.

“Hmmmph.” Gwen hung up without a proper goodbye and Ben took in a deep breath. He set down his phone and rubbed his hands over his face, through his hair.

A quiet curse broke him out of his moment. Rey had returned, hitting her knee on the corner of the chair.

“Fuck,” she muttered, biting down on her bottom lip, eyes watering as the pain shimmied down her shin. “I left my bag.”

Ben glanced at the bag sitting on the floor. “Right,” he said shortly.

Rey frowned, grabbing it off the floor and hooking it over her shoulder. She hesitated, still embarrassed and knowing it wasn’t her business, but she opened her big mouth anyway. “Are you okay? Was that a bad news phone call?”

“Um…not bad news. More of an annoyance that I unfortunately asked for, but would rather not deal with.”

“Procrastination, the world’s more formidable foe,” she said seriously.

Ben laughed; well, it was more of an unexpected huff, but there was humor to it. “Something that like.”

Rey beamed at him. She couldn’t help it. It was just who she was. She could ignore almost any embarrassment and find control in any situation if she was positive about it. “I um…I really do need to get going. You don’t happen to be proficient in reading bus and shuttle schedules do you? I can’t afford another cab.” She pulled her phone out of her bag as she spoke.

“Oh, yeah, I can probably help.” Ben got to his feet and stood next to her, looking down at her phone as she pulled up Chandrila’s bus app. 

After a few minutes of exchanging the phone back and forth between their hands, Rey figured out which bus to take where and when. When she finally received the phone back, it was warm from their hands and Rey was very aware of her shoulder pushing against his arm, his breath against her hair.

“Thank you,” she said quickly, holding the phone like it was her lifeline. She had ten minutes to get to the right bus stop. “I—I actually have to go now.” She hesitated for a moment, unsure why, but then she snapped back to herself. She gave Ben Solo a smile and waved at him with her phone clutched in her hand as she walked out of the cafe and then jogged down the sidewalk as fast as her skirt would allow.

Ben stood there, blinking at the space she had been next to him, his arm already getting cold after her warmth settled there. She was…strange but in a good way. In a way that he wouldn’t be able to get her out of his mind for days. 

Ben wasn’t a dating sort of person, but he couldn’t help but find himself drifting back to the memory of her as the day dragged on, wincing at his cringe worthy responses and attitude but finding himself unable to get her out of his mind. There were a million reasons not to let even his personal musing continue, but no matter how many times he told himself that, he just couldn’t help it.

He tried to shove his thoughts of her away because he didn’t even _know_ her, he had no right to think things like that. His mother would slap him if she knew.


	3. III.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben can't get Rey out of his mind and with a little nudge from Poe, makes a spontaneous decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much to say here! A little bit more interaction, we're really getting some traction now! ;)

**III.**

The third time Rey saw Ben Solo, it was not an accident.

Ben woke up the next day wondering what Rey smelled like, barely holding onto the briefest of scents he could remember from helping her with her phone. He didn’t get distracted like this. He was not someone who lost control. He knew he wouldn’t act on whatever it was he was feeling, but it was lingering outside of his control. 

It was unlikely they would ever bump into each other ever again, he kept telling himself.

He had no friends to really talk to about it. He was not a _friends_ guy, though he did end up finally giving his one and only friend a call after a few days of internal torture.

“Sounds like you are enthralled, bud,” Poe Dameron said through the phone. 

Poe and Ben had been roommates at college. Unlikely friends, but they were still talking a decade later so that had to count for something. Poe was a pilot, and he’d gotten married two years ago to fellow pilot, Din Djarin. Ben had been a best man at their wedding. He didn’t get choked up about weddings, but he remembered feeling even more alone than ever after it.

“Enthralled?” Ben repeated, the phone resting against his shoulder as he fished through his fridge.

“She’s pretty, right? And she’s smart. Tell me you’ve Googled her.”

Ben had. After the meeting at the cafe, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Rey Johnson. He typed her name into the search engine on his computer and found that she was twenty years old, the youngest mechanical engineer working at the Skywalker Space Center and had won numerous scholarships and awards during her expedited college experience. Articles threw around words like _prodigy_ and _genius_. 

“She’s young,” Ben emphasized.

“She’s _twenty_ not twelve,” Poe said, munching on some food and muffling the reception. “And a certified genius, NASA nerd. I just Googled her.”

Ben groaned and closed the fridge, resting his head against the cold metal. “We just happened to meet. It’s not like it’s going to happen again. The Space Center isn’t in Chandrila, she was only in the city for a specific thing.”

Ben could imagine Poe standing there covered in Cheeto dust, in his boxers and white t-shirt, about to beat him up affectionately with a pillow. “Ben, you know where she works. You guys work in the same field—”

“Hardly.”

“Just go feel things out. Worse case scenario, you’ll talk to her a few more times and then realize she’s not for you, you can beat one out and then move on.”

Ben pushed himself away from the fridge. “I don’t—” He wasn’t the kind of guy to imagine a woman he actually _knew_ when he masturbated, especially one he wasn’t already sexually involved with. It made him feel—for lack of a better word—totally sleazy. 

“You’re not a prude, Benjamin,” Poe reminded him.

“This conversation did not go the way I planned,” Ben mumbled. He now felt itchy all over like even mentioning Rey and his personal sex habits in the same sentence was _wrong_.

Poe rambled on and after twenty more minutes, Ben hung up. It was early evening, he didn’t have any more classes today, it’s possible she would still be working—

Before he could talk himself out of it, he pulled on jeans and a navy sweater and got into his car.

It took him an hour to get to the Space Center. He parked around to the side and realized that while Ackbar was well known and had helped build the first space shuttles, Ben wasn’t as accredited so he couldn’t just walk into a secure NASA lab. 

He went through the civilian entrance instead, embarrassment making his ears turn pink. He told himself it was more about the fact that he had to walk in like a common citizen and less about his conversation with Poe.

\--

Rey was fiercely focused on her project, not having moved from her spot for hours as she typed calculations into a computer program over and over and _over_ again. She was so focused, in fact, that when Jannah came in and put her hand on Rey’s shoulder, she felt like she was being dragged through a black hole back into reality.

“Oh!” Rey exclaimed, sitting back and rubbing her eyes. Her hands were cramping up.

“You should have been home an hour ago. Maybe two,” her boss told her. “And there’s someone here looking for you.”

Rey frowned, standing. She stretched and her spine popped. She’d been sitting for too long. “Who is here for me?” She glanced at her watch. “Shit. Rose is—”

“She already left.”

“I have no ride home,” Rey whined. She really needed to get her license but she hated driving. Which Rose and Finn continued to bug her about since her life was all about mechanics. _I’m a rocket scientist_ , was always her counter, _I don’t build cars so I don’t trust them_.

Jannah waited as Rey grabbed her backpack and turned off her multiple computer monitors and the lights in the lab. “The late night star gazing crowds are just showing up, but someone was asking for you. Maybe he can drive you home?”

Rey quirked an eyebrow. “Who is it?”

“Professor Ben Solo.”

Rey almost stopped walking. _What_? Why? Had she offended him so much at the cafe that he came to ask her to apologize? She took off her lanyard badge and wrapped the straps around her hands as she walked next to Jannah to the front building. They parted before they got there, with Jannah jogging off to the idling Cadillac that her father drove. Rey waved at both of them and then headed into the dim Space Center.

She had definitely _thought_ about Ben Solo since their awkward meeting in the city. It was mostly her going over every embarrassing thing she said and did, how she’d been sweating through her black top and grey skirt, and how she’d said she liked reading steamy romances. Her cheeks got pink thinking about it as she pushed through the back staff entrance and into the main room, usually filled with kids but now mostly filled with adults and teens. Was this a school thing? She couldn’t remember. It wasn’t one of her nights.

She spotted Finn and Jessika off to the corner, getting things ready to take tickets. Rey skipped over to them, her backpack slamming against her spine as she did so. What did she have in there? A cinderblock? She grumbled at herself as they saw her.

“Hey Rey,” Jessika Pava said. She was the staff manager for the floor. Eight years older than Rey, she had always been nice and gave everyone fair treatment when they worked. It didn’t matter to her if they were a summer hire, a labbie like Rey who wanted to interact with something other than a computer, or a full-time employee like Finn. She often praised Rey’s tours as visitors’ favorite. It made Rey feel good.

“Hi. Jannah said someone was asking for me,” Rey said, suddenly nervous. Why was she nervous? Sure, Ben Solo was tall and she woke up with his voice echoing in her ears every morning since she first met him _but that didn’t mean anything_. She was merely lonely. 

So what if his face was pretty nice? He was…he was…way, way, _way_ beyond her league. Like, fathoms away. She would have to take the mythical elevator to the Moon to reach him. He was the youngest graduate Physics professor in the country. She was just Rey.

“Over there,” Jess said, pointing.

Rey followed her finger. He was hovering by the front doors, beyond the mass of people gathered to use the observatory telescope to look at the closest planets.

Thanking Jess and saying a quick goodbye to Finn, Rey skirted the room, around the crowd, passed the Zero-G chair, interactive stands, and finally, she was close enough to see his face in the dim light.

“Professor?”

Ben turned to her and the tense muscles in his shoulders relaxed. “Miss. Johnson,” he replied automatically. “I was hoping you’d still be working.”

Rey crossed her arms and peered up at him as the crowd got louder, moving forward in a large mass to give in their tickets. “Oh? Why is that?”

Even in the low lightly, Ben could make out her features from the lights outside. She looked tired, but at least she wasn’t unhappy to see him. Something told him that she would tell him if she was. 

But now he had to come up with an excuse for coming here. A normal, regular exscu—

“Physics,” he blurted out.

“What about it?” Rey asked.

_Yes, Ben, what about it_? “I was…I know it’s not exactly your prime focus of study, but I was curious if maybe you’d like to come and speak to one of my classes near the end of the semester.” 

Okay, that didn’t sound too bad. Maybe she wouldn’t think he thought of it on the fly.

Rey tilted her head. “That—sounds really cool actually,” she said, sounding almost disappointed. “No one really takes me seriously because I’m so young. I mean, they do, but they don’t at the same time.”

“I get it,” Ben nodded.

She believed him. He was young for his profession as well. She gripped the handles of her backpack. “Did you really come all this way to ask me that?”

“I had no other way to contact you.”

She pressed her lips together. “I guess that’s true. I um—” She glanced over her shoulder at the thinning crowd. Nearly everyone had been accepted through. But Finn and Jess would both be staying until the night sky watch was done and she couldn’t wait for them. Rey sighed and turned to Ben, her stomach growling loudly. She blushed and was thankful it was dark. “I just got done with work. I was so caught up in my project that I completely missed dinner. I also don’t have a ride.” She lifted her hands to her face and rubbed her tired eyes. “I’m a mess.” She chuckled sadly into her palms.

Ben swallowed hard. “I can drive you home.” The words came out gently. He didn’t want to make her feel pressured, but he didn’t want to come off like an asshole who didn’t care either.

Rey dropped her hands and squinted up at him. “Really?” Incredulous. Her tone said _incredulous_. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard someone perfectly encapsulate that word before.

“Yeah,” Ben nodded, taking a backward step toward the doors. “If you wanted to talk about coming to my class, we could do that, too.”

Rey still watched him skeptically but followed him outside, stepping through the door he held open for her. “Okay. My brain is still wired from work. But I’ll try to keep up.”

“Would eating help? I skipped dinner, too.”

“You look like you haven’t skipped a meal a single day in your life,” she said before she could stop herself. She instantly felt the need to flee.

“I do like to eat,” he said with a little chuckle. “We’ll talk over dinner.”

She couldn’t complain. 

They got into his car, which wasn’t brand new, but it was a lot nicer than Rose’s clunker. Ben took her to a burger joint that was _not_ McDonalds, but slammed out burgers almost as fast. The chips were thick cut and covered in spices. She was ravenous and barely said a word until she’d inhaled her whole burger and half of her fries in what must have been record time.

With a content sigh, she sat back in her chair, feeling a little too full but it was so good she hadn’t been able to stop herself. Her eyelids felt heavy.

“Shit!” She sat up, gripping the wooden arms of the chair. “We’re supposed to talk about your class but all we’ve done is talk about food and eat.” She frowned at his half-eaten plate. “I mean, one of us has been eating.”

“I’m a slow eater,” Ben said, marveling at the creature before him. She truly was not like anyone he’d ever met before. He barely knew her, but he had a feeling she lived her life a lot like a ping-pong ball, on a known path but constantly jumping around.

Rey wiped her hands on her napkin. “So what would I say in this class?”

“Anything you wanted. Your experiences with physics in your education. How it impacts your life. Not everyone in my class will end up working for NASA. But I’m sure they’d love to hear about your story.” 

And it wasn’t only his class who wanted to hear it. Ben may have read her life story in black and white on a computer screen, but a part of him wanted to hear it from her lips, with her jolting mind and the way that words seemed to just slip out of her unbidden no matter how embarrassing. Yet she just pushed forward. Ben could do that, sure, but then he’d want to bury himself in a hole and never talk to another human being ever again.

“My story really isn’t anything,” Rey said, waving her hand. She pecked at the remaining chips on her plate as he kept eating. “I mean…the biggest thing about me is my age. Which I don’t think should be as big a deal as the world makes it. I’m _smart_ , big deal. I know I am, I know what I can do, and that should be the story.”

“I think my class would enjoy that particular line of thinking,” Ben nodded along with her, focusing on what she was saying and not on her slender wrists. Was he a 19th century gentleman all of a sudden where a pale wrist distracted him?

“Science should be about the facts, not the gender or age of the person behind it. Maybe the next generation of scientists will understand that. I’d be more than happy to write up a whole speech on it,” she finished with a satisfied grin.

“I would be more than happy to listen,” Ben said, hoping that didn’t sound as weird out loud as it did in his head.

Rey laughed lightly and finished off her glass of soda, tipping the cup back and crunching on a remaining ice cube. “That’s something I can work on. When will this be?”

“December,” Ben offered. “Give them a break from final projects.”

“Cool. Then I definitely have time to figure out what I’ll say.” She looked at her watch. “Damn, it’s pretty late. Sorry I kept you out so long.”

“It’s fine.” Ben quickly finished off his meal and reached for his wallet.

Rey also had her wallet in hand and there was a tense moment before she reached for the receipt. They hadn’t gotten two bills, but she looked at the price of her meal and then handed the paper over. Rey put some money down on the table to cover hers and a tip. Ben did the same.

The apartment building that Rey lived in was nice and it was pretty close to the Space Center. Ben dropped her off at the curb. 

Rey got out and gripped the door, leaning down. “Thanks for the ride,” she said, giving him a bright smile. “And for taking me to that burger place. I’m definitely going to get fat eating there from now on.” She frowned a little at her words but pushed on. “Anyway, I think I’m going to look forward to talking at your class.”

“Good,” Ben said with a small smile. “I’ll be looking forward to it, too.”

Rey hesitated before she closed the door and stepped back. Ben hesitated too, not wanting to immediately take off but also, once again, not wanting to be a creep. He watched her take a few steps toward a break in the shrubs to go to her building and then he merged back into the traffic.


	4. IV.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben start seeing _a little_ more of each other. The pining begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're so cute.

**IV.**

The next few times Rey saw Ben, it was on purpose. 

They had neglected to exchange contact information after dinner, but he had found her work email and sent her one the following day. He wanted to talk more about his class, and he was interested in her story too. 

When Rey first got the email at work, her immediate selfish thought was that maybe he could help her contact Doctor Ackbar directly. But then she shook that thought away. She had her own connections, she’d be fine. 

> _To Miss Johnson,_
> 
> _It’s come to my attention that I could just find your contact information through your job. I hope it’s all right that I reached out to you. If you’d like to talk any more about my offer to speak in my class, feel free to contact me._
> 
> _Best regards,  
> _ _Ben Solo_

She didn’t really have any questions, but she couldn’t resist, a few days later, when she sent a reply.

It turned into something more than she expected.

Over the next few weeks, she met with Ben Solo five more times. They usually went to the same burger place. Each meeting got longer and longer, starting to reach two hours in length by the time Halloween came around.

They talked about _everything_ to do with the sciences. It was easy for them to talk to one another. Rey spent a lot of time talking about her NASA projects—more viable equipment for female astronauts which she was working on with Jannah, and her thesis, which was about propulsion systems that could be utilized for shuttles and satellites alike. 

There was no pretense of having to keep up a conversation, it happened naturally. There continued to be awkward moments of course, and the occasional argument but by the time Ben dropped Rey off at the curb at her apartment at the end of the night, they were both satisfied.

Well, mostly. 

These weren’t _dates_. There was a level of professionalism that was kept up. No straying eyes or comments, everything was a safe topic. But that didn’t stop the things going on in their minds.

Ben—very quickly losing his control internally and having no idea what to do about it. Rey was amazing. He continued to be pleasantly surprised by the things she said. She could keep up with him at every step of conversation, even if he thought she may not. She stunned him with her quick responses and sometimes he found _himself_ struggling to keep up. She knew a lot about a lot of topics, some of which he only had a general understanding of. She was an equal to him unlike anyone he’d ever met before.

Rey—forever ready to find an email from Ben rejecting her proposal to meet. It wasn’t like they _needed to_ , and it wasn’t like her coworkers were stupid so she had no one to talk to. They were all highly intelligent, but there was something so captivating about Ben Solo. He was sort of a mystery—she had refused to Google him even though her researching fingers desperately wanted to—so everything she knew about him was organic.

Every meal they split—they started getting two checks after that first time—and Ben would politely drive her home. She would thank him and then go up to her flat feeling warm and fuzzy. 

Ben went home, his entire body buzzing. He _knew_ he wouldn’t be able to not picture her if he touched himself so he hadn’t in weeks. It was a self administered torture that he was going to keep up until he—well he didn’t know. Until December, when they no longer met to talk about his class?

Who was he kidding, they weren’t meeting solely to talk about his class. They touched on the properties of physics from here and there, but it wasn’t everything. Most of what they talked about was personal interest.

But he wasn’t going to be the one to go further. In the grand scheme of things, he was her senior in many ways and he didn’t want to feel as if he was taking advantage of her. Nor did he want her to feel obligated to agree with any request he may have. Which left him to desperately fucking pine for her from afar. By now he could perfectly conjure up her face in his mind if he just closed his eyes. Which was a problem whenever his dick was hard and he was dying for a release that he wouldn’t allow himself.

Rey spent her evenings, when she wasn’t focused on her thesis, thinking about the way Ben Solo’s face lit up when he laughed. He had dimples and crooked teeth and he seemed embarrassed about everything he did with his body, whether it be laughing or choking on a chip. She had accidentally made him do that once when she laid out her favorite cheesy physics pickup line because it had to do with their current topic. He’d stepped off into the bathroom and she tried very hard not to feel like she’d somehow fucked up. But when he came back everything was normal.

She wouldn’t let herself think of more than that. She definitely didn’t wonder how his hands would feel against her bare skin, or even if they just _held_ hands. He was so totally out of her dating district he may as well have been across the country. He was older than her by a decade, had a successful teaching profession—she had nothing to offer. So she would take their debates over burgers and chips as they were.

She didn’t tell anyone about their meetings, not even Rose, who was the closest thing she had to a best friend.

Ben didn’t tell Poe either, not wanting to be presented with another awkward conversation. He was a _professor_ , he enjoyed quiet evenings and quiet mornings and for nothing exciting to ever happen to him. He liked running and petting dogs in the park. He did not have the imaginative capacity that Poe had when it came to sexual endeavors, nor could he stomach them. The second his brain veered that way, he practically got a stomach ache. He didn’t want to objectify _anyone_ , especially if they weren’t aware of him doing it.

If he was any other man, maybe he would have asked Rey out after the second time they got burgers, but it was coming up on the sixth time now and it was still just burgers-and-science talk.

Both of them had felt a little more conscious of every word, every shift in the conversation, having no idea that the other was just as intent on them.

Rey hesitated before she left his car, idling on the curb. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, reaching for the door handle.

“Wait,” Ben started. 

She turned around so fast that she hurt her neck and winced. “Ow,” she muttered, reaching up a hand. But Ben beat her to it.

He didn’t know why his instinct was to reach out and gently touch her neck, but he did it. He _was_ doing it. He gently pressed his warm fingertips to her stiff muscles.

Rey couldn’t breathe. His hand felt lovely and his face was very close, even if his eyes were focused on her neck and not her face. That was purposeful on his part.

“That’s nice,” she whispered out.

“I didn’t mean to startle you, Miss. Johnson,” Ben murmured.

She blinked, feeling bold. “Just Rey.”

His hand stopped massaging and rested against the swoop of her neck. “Oh…you can call me Ben, then.”

“Okay,” Rey said. She should really leave. Had she gone too far? Was first names weird? “Th—thank you.”

Ben realized his hand was still on her and he retracted it, sitting back in the driver’s seat with his heart hammering. He felt like a damn teenager. “I had a nice time.” They never did this. Rey usually hopped out right away, leaned down to say goodnight and then skipped off to the hedges.

“Me too.” Rey gathered her backpack to her chest and pushed some hair behind her ear. “I should—I should get going.” 

Ben watched her get out of the car. He wanted to call her back almost immediately. 

Like always, she leaned down, though her gaze was a little more confused than bright like it usually was. “Goodnight,” she said, and then added, almost shyly, “Ben.”

The door shut, closing him off. He sat behind the wheel and then shook his head. Could he stand it any more? No, he could not.

Unbuckling himself from the seatbelt, he hastily got out of the car, leaning against the top of his car. “Rey!” he caught her before she ducked between the tall hedges.

Rey stopped, heart in her throat. She turned around and took a few steps closer. “Did I forget something?” He looked very handsome standing there in the dimly lit light. 

“Are you doing anything on Sunday?” Ben’s hand gripped the top of the door to steady himself. “I don’t—I don’t have anything planned.”

Rey stepped a little closer, gripping her bag straps in that nervous way she did. “Oh? Did you…did you want to have something planned?” What was happening? _What was happening?_

“I don’t want to pressure you into anything,” Ben said finally, speaking his worries. They sounded trivial when spoken aloud, but they meant a lot to him. He wasn’t that guy. He didn’t ever want to be. He wanted to be the guy whose breath got fast when he looked at Rey’s wrists too long.

“You—?” The rest of the sentence fizzled out. Was this really happening? Had she hit her head on the way out of his car and this was some elaborate unconscious dream? “Are you asking me out?” The words squeezed themselves out.

Ben let go of a breath that had been held tight in his chest. “I’m asking if you want me to ask you out,” he specified.

Rey’s face twitched into a small frown. “But—why?”

“Why?”

“Why me?”

It was Ben’s turn to frown. “Why not?”

“I’m just—I’m just me. I’m Rey. I’m no one.”

“Rey—no one? That’s hardly true.”

She blushed a little. “I’ll think about it,” she said, trying hard not to break into a grin. Or into a run and fling herself at him to kiss his stupid tentative face. “Is that okay?”

Ben was relieved. He wasn’t upset that she didn’t say yes straight away. “Yeah, that’s okay.”

Rey smiled a little and then darted back into her apartment complex.

Ben got back into his car in a daze. When he got home, he glanced at his phone and saw a notification of a new email. It was from Rey and simply said: _Yes_.


	5. V.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Rey have their date. It goes _pretty_ well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The kids finally did it! They're going on a real adult date. Yay!
> 
> PS. I realize that I have not been posting one chapter of this a day. I have been respecting black twitter and social media and posting about relevant topics. I decided recently that fan-stuff is still an escape, and since AO3 is not a social sharing site, it would be okay to post the remaining chapters throughout this month.
> 
> In that light, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

**V.**

The tenth time Rey saw Ben, he was in a suit.

Rey kept this date to herself. It wasn’t like she didn’t _want_ to tell Rose; she did, but a larger part of her wanted this to be a secret. Because what if it went really really badly? She didn’t do dates. She found boys who looked optimal when she was out with Rose and Kaydel and went home with them.

She had just as many bodily needs as intellectual ones.

Ben was the first person she suspected may be able to fulfill them both.

She was guessing, maybe _hoping_. He did not usually exude sexual energy, which was maybe why she liked talking to him so much. But the five days leading up to their Sunday date was nearly torture.

She went to bed thinking about if _he_ was in bed and what he was doing. She had ghosts of dreams in her mind all day, dreams that she knew were good, but didn’t know what happened in them.

By the time Sunday came and she was standing at the curb in her usual spot, Rey was horny.

About once a month she got horny enough that she couldn’t ignore it. Otherwise, she would be so focused on her work that she could easily ignore her body completely.

But this was different. This made her want to fuck herself with her fingers and think of Ben every night.

She didn’t though, because she wasn’t sure she could face him for their date after the fact.

Ben pulled up not in his usual car, but an Uber, the sticker on the back windshield. He stepped out and her mouth may have fallen open a little. She wanted to take back her thoughts of Ben not exuding sexual energy because she had never seen him in a suit before.

It was black, perfectly tailored, with a white shirt, unbuttoned on the top. No tie or anything. The jacket fit him like a glove.

Rey gulped. She didn’t think people outside of cartoons did that. She felt slightly underdressed in Kaydel’s borrowed little black dress with thin straps. Kaydel had insisted that a LBD went for any occasion. 

Rey hadn’t told anyone about her date, but Kaydel definitely suspected. She didn’t know if the blonde journalist would say anything, but she hoped not.

“You look amazing,” Ben said, focusing Rey back into the real world.

“Thanks,” Rey said automatically. She’d exchanged her backpack for a tiny clutch and already hated it but she tucked it under her arm anyway. “So do you.”

Ben half smiled. “I uh…I got a car in case we drink at the restaurant.”

Rey walked closer. “I’m not old enough to drink in the States but I like a forward thinker.”

Ben blinked as she slid into the car. How could he have forgotten? She presented as genuinely herself, smart and mature, so much that he’d completely neglected to remember the fact that she was a decade younger than he was.

Taking a deep breath, Ben got into the car after her.

\--

Dinner was heaven and hell all at once. 

First, Rey looked stunning. Stellar. So beautiful that he’d wanted to bust out his Latin just to describe how she looked to him. He didn’t. He thought that might be a little much for a first date.

Second, he had held her hand to help her get out of the car and now all he could think about was touching her again.

Third, the conversation was just as stimulating as ever.

Rey got over her shyness almost immediately and returned to her normal self. She did remember her manners well enough to breathe between bites of food instead of inhaling everything as fast as she could. She talked and talked for the both of them. Ben was more subdued than usual.

Rey hoped it wasn’t her. But it probably was. She was too new at this, had little experience—what would he want with her anyway?

But then, when dessert was brought to their table—a small slice of double chocolate cake with pomegranate sauce—and Ben glanced at her, she felt a tingle roll down her spine. She was not stupid enough to _not_ realize that both the properties of their dessert were aphrodisiacs.

Was having sex on a first date even a blip on anyone’s radar anymore? Rey didn’t know—neither did Ben for that matter—but she desperately wanted to try it out no matter what society deemed appropriate.

The quieter the table got, the more Rey found that she wanted to touch him. She wanted to feel how solid he was under his clothes, wanted to kiss his skin and have him pin her to a wall.

She blinked, surprised but not terribly so. She was always pretty confident when it came to sex. It was natural for all creatures, and humans were one of the few species who could get enjoyment out of it too so why wouldn’t she?

The air between them was so thick as they got up to leave Rey could almost taste it. Ben scrawled his signature across the bottom of the receipt and she didn’t even protest to pay for some of it.

They walked toward the door and Rey shivered as it swung open to let other people inside. Instantly, Ben took off his jacket and put it around her, his hands delicately brushing her bare shoulders and settling on her lower back.

Rey wrapped her fingers around the edge of the jacket and pulled it close around her, dipping her nose down to breathe in the scent of him.

Neither of them had drank anything, but they both felt drunk on the mere presence of each other. Ben was finding it hard to keep his hands to himself.

“Do—where did you want to go?” he asked.

Rey sucked in a deep breath. She wanted to say his place, but that’s what she always did. And then she never spoke to those guys again. And she didn’t want that. “We could go back to mine. If you wanted. I think I still have some wine Rose bought me.”

If she couldn’t drink in public, she could at least drink at home, right? She also had vodka and triple sec for her cosmos but she didn’t think getting drunk on hard liquor on a work night was a smart idea.

She was expecting him to reject her, but he nodded and gently ran his hand up her spine, making her knees weak. “That sounds good to me,” he replied.

A few minutes later, they were in the back of another Uber. It was dark out and the driver had a very dim car, the music turned up loud.

Rey could feel her entire body pulsing, her heart beating at the base of her throat, her breath coming out short and shallow. 

She had no idea what was making her want to do this, but she was never one to say no to her impulses, definitely not when they were sitting _so close_.

Carefully, she reached across the seat toward Ben. His hand was resting on his thigh and she ran her fingers along the back of it. He glanced toward her, hardly able to see in the dark. Rey was thankful for the shortness of her borrowed dress, which had already ridden up her thighs when she sat down.

Rey pulled his hand toward her, pressing his palm against her thigh, his fingers dipping between her legs. His breath hitched and he caught a curve of her smile in a passing streetlight.

They were in somebody’s car. Ben had never had any sort of public sex before. He was not Poe, whose sexual exploits should have landed him in jail on more than one occasion.

But Ben would be fucking damned if he said no to Rey.

He kept glancing at the driver, but they were intent on the road and the traffic up ahead.

Rey squeezed his wrist and scooted down in the seat a little, forcing his fingers closer to her hot center. He could feel the heat radiating off her and he almost swore. Rey tucked one of her hands into her hair to grip and pull if she needed to remind herself to stay quiet.

She bit down on her bottom lip when he brushed his fingertips over the wet fabric of her panties. They were her best pair, but they were not holding up well against how turned on she was by him sitting there in the restaurant in a god damn suit, talking about scientific theory with her.

Ben pressed his fingers a bit firmer, feeling how slick she was. He kept getting glimpses of her from passing headlights and streetlights. Her head was tilted back, her throat exposed, her eyes sometimes closed, sometimes heavy-lidded but very obviously on him.

Ben clamped his mouth shut so he didn’t start panting, his cock already straining against his pants. She spread her thighs a little more and Ben found her hard little clit and smeared the fabric against it. She clamped down on his wrist with her fingers and he smirked even as he glanced around to make sure they weren’t found out.

He curled his fingers through her panties toward her cunt and Rey gasped quietly. He wanted so badly to hear her begging, his name on her lips, but he would take this too. He pushed aside her underwear and his finger slipped through her folds, sending a shiver through Rey’s whole body. 

The car ride wouldn’t last forever, so Ben didn’t waste time. He gently rubbed her clit a few times before he slipped one of his fingers inside. She was insanely hot and wet. Ben had the intoxicating thought that she was going to ruin him for anyone else.

How she was staying so quiet was a mystery to both of them. But she moved her hips and wiggled enough for him to know that she was enjoying herself. He slid his finger out, dragging it through her folds then back in again. A few more times of that and he added a second finger. 

Rey almost moaned. She let go of his wrist to slap her hand over her mouth. Was this the hottest thing to ever happen to her? Probably. She wanted to scream and moan, but the fact that she had to be silent made this even more thrilling. She could have kissed their driver for being so oblivious.

Ben moved his hand rhythmically, curling his hand around her mound, bumping his palm over her clit with each motion. Rey gripped Ben’s shoulder, her other hand clamped so tight over her mouth it would probably leave marks. 

He held her gaze and clenched his free hand against his thigh. He was hard, wanting nothing more than to sink deep inside of her, to feel her around his cock.

It must have been the mixture of his eyes on hers, the wrongness of fucking in the back of someone’s car, and the fact that she hadn’t had sex in a while but she came really hard and really fast. 

She muffled her moan and bit down on her middle finger, throwing her head back and clenching around his fingers. Her breathing was jagged as the car pulled off the highway and Ben took his hand back.

It struck her then that they hadn’t kissed yet and he had already given her an orgasm. Maybe tonight would end up more fruitful than she could have imagined.

Ben’s entire body was on full alert and he had no chance to process it before the car stopped. He fumbled with his phone and sent the payment and a tip, bigger than probably was necessary, before he followed Rey onto the sidewalk. She was pulling down her dress, his jacket still hanging around her shoulders.

Once the car turned away, Ben said her name and she turned, tossed her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

He leaned down, sliding his hands round her tiny torso to kiss her in return. It was a little awkward for the first few seconds, all noses and teeth, but they quickly found a rhythm and Rey deepened the kiss, parting her lips and tasting with her tongue.

He gripped her hip and her ass in his hands, his wonderful fucking hands, and Rey pulled herself flush against him. He was hard and she wanted him.

“Ben,” she moaned out, pulling back. 

His hands slid up her back, easily spanning the width of her shoulders. “Yes?” His eyes were dark and heady, and any shyness was gone.

She trailed her fingertips down his neck. “Would you like to see my flat?” she asked, with a half-grin.

His eyes focused on the tiny dimple that carved itself in her cheek. “Yes,” he repeated, leaning in to kiss that very dimple before he took her hand and let her lead.

Rey walked fast, nearly stumbling over her heels, and tried to be quiet when she walked up the breezeway. Rose and Kaydel lived a few apartments down the hall and she didn’t want to alert them of her late night activities.

She let go of his hand to open the door and then pulled him inside. She hung up his jacket on the broken coatrack on the wall, kicked off her shoes and then pulled down her panties all in record time. She was going to leave no pretenses here.

Ben watched her, his hands hovering over her hips as she wriggled free of the small, disruptive piece of fabric. Once she stood, he had his hands on her, pulling her against him. She tilted her head back against his chest and he kissed her neck, walking forward until she was pinned against the kitchen counter, his cock pressed against her ass.

She pushed against him, wiggling.

“Fuck, Rey,” he mumbled out, sucking just under her ear.

He was going to leave marks and she didn’t fucking care. She turned herself around and kissed him, open and needy. One hand kept her steady around his neck, the other stroked his length through his pants.

Ben gripped her hip hard with one hand and took her chin in his other. He bit her bottom lip gently, tugging on it and letting go only when Rey squeezed the end of his cock.

“Fuck, fuck, you’re so fucking gorgeous, Rey,” Ben said, panting between his words, kissing her sloppily as he did and as her hands worked on unbuttoning his pants. “I’ve wanted to kiss you all fucking night.”

She hummed. “I want you to fuck me, Ben,” she said against his lips.

He didn’t need to be asked twice. He grabbed her and she yelped as he moved to the bigger part of the counter on the other side of the sink, settling her down on the edge. It was the perfect height.

Rey watched as he pulled his cock out from his boxers, allowed herself a moment to marvel at the size of it before she was kissing him again, legs spread around him.

“Shit,” Ben muttered a moment later. “Condom?” He hadn’t brought any. He hadn’t been thinking this was how he would end his night.

Rey was careful. She was always careful, always cautious but she wanted his cock in her right now or she was going to die. She shook her head, looping her arm around his shoulders. “I need to feel all of you. I want you to come inside of me,” she said, kissing his jaw, his neck, and that was all it took.

He gripped the base of his erection and rubbing the throbbing tip through her dripping folds, pulling her to the edge of the counter. They moaned together as he pushed inside of her. Rey nearly forgot how to breath. She adjusted herself, panting at the slightest of movements. He helped, pinning one of her legs under his arm and holding the other in a tight grip. 

It was almost fate at how perfect the height of the counter was.

He thrust up into her and she whimpered. She clung to him as he moved inside of her. He wasn’t even filling her up, there was more of him to take, but she felt so fucking good Ben was blissfully okay with the amount of his cock sliding through her gorgeous cunt. 

His head burrowed into the crook of her neck and she gripped his hair at the base of his neck. 

“You feel so fucking good,” he mumbled against her skin. _Too good_. He was already feeling short of breath, everything tight and his heart was pounding in his ears. This is what he fucking got for not jerking off for the past month.

“So good,” Rey echoed, her lips brushing his ear.

Ben’s evening continued to be heaven and hell. He thrust again and again and couldn’t stop and let out a slew of “fucks” and pulsed inside of her. He shuddered and hissed out a “shitshitshit”.

It didn’t sound like a good amount of cursing. “What? Wh—” And then Ben pulled back and he looked like his embarrassed self again.

“Fuck, shit. Rey, I’m—”

“You’re—?” She felt him growing softer inside of her and blinked. “Oh! Um…that’s okay.”

“No.” He shook his head, pulling out of her and tucking his half-flaccid dick back into his underwear. “No. Three minutes of fucking is not okay.” He took her head in his hand again—he needed just the one—and kissed her hard. “I’m sorry. I haven’t done this in a while. I guess I was just too excited. You had to wear this dress…”

She blushed a little, her legs settling down on the counter. “It’s okay. It was nice.”

“You deserve better than nice.” Ben took her hands and kissed each wrist. “I’m going to make sure you come again tonight.”

Rey was totally okay with that. He held her hands as she got down from the counter. “Okay. I’ll um…I’ll be just a second.”

No one had ever come inside of her before. Not like that. She could feel his cum dripping down the inside of her thighs as she half-closed the bathroom door. She had always been super careful, but something about this quiet professor with ancient eyes made her want to be reckless. 

Every date, every _boy_ before now had just been to fill a certain need. But with Ben? It felt… _more_.

Realizing she shouldn’t get lost in her head while he was on the other side of the door, she quickly peed and cleaned herself up. It was weird to actually _feel_ his cum inside of her; she’d been so good at having safe sex before now. She was on birth control of course, but still.

She hung a damp washcloth on her shower before she came back out. Ben was standing by her bed, still fully dressed.

“Can we get rid of this?” she asked, tugging at his sleeve. A minute later, he was shirtless and she had kissed much of his salty skin. He took her gently to the bed and laid her down on it, settling his hips between her legs and kissing her mouth. 

He was a good kisser. She wanted to do infinitely more kissing if they kept doing this dating thing.

Slowly, he began to move down, his teeth scraping over the thin fabric of her dress. He got down to her waist and stopped. He slid down to his knees at the end of the bed and pulled her closer. She let out a tiny laugh as he did so.

“Oh, so that’s what you’re doing,” she said as he kissed her inner thighs. She hadn’t ever had anyone go down on her before. It would be a first. But she wasn’t going to tell him that.

Ben smiled against her soft milky flesh. “It’s the least I can do,” he told her, getting closer and closer to her center. 

She held her breath as he leaned in and licked through her folds. Rey was pleasantly surprised at the extra wetness his tongue brought. He licked and lapped at her and she was already feeling herself getting even wetter as he did so.

A moan escaped and her legs started to quake, as if they knew what this was leading up to.

Rey closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her body quivering with anticipation as he licked and circled his tongue around her clit, drawing more glorious moans from her. His hands circled her thighs to keep her still and it didn’t take long before Rey’s grasping hands found his hair and her fingers tangled and pulled.

His tongue dipped into her entrance and Rey saw stars. She arched her back and pleaded for more. “S’good—pleasepleaseplease.”

Ben obliged, more than happy to eat her out for however fucking long she wanted. The taste of both of them mingled on his tongue and it was the hottest thing he ever tasted.

With a flick of a tensed tongue on her clit, Rey moaned, her body already halfway to an orgasm from his cock minutes earlier. His tongue dipped inside of her and she pulled a little too forcefully, grinding his face against her—but he didn’t protest. His nose rubbed against her clit and she was _so close_.

“Ben—” she gasped out. “Ben, I’m-”

Ben slipped two fingers into her—she was so fucking slick—and sucked on her clit. Moments later she came, clenching around his fingers, her hands pulling almost painfully at his hair, her cries of release echoing through the small room. He thrust his fingers through her orgasm until she was a shuddering mess.

Her heart was beating so fast she was sure that it was going to break her ribs. Her hands softened their hold and she brushed her fingers gently through his hair before she ran her palms over her face.

He still moved his fingers, curling them inside of her. She bucked her hips and hissed involuntarily.

“Did—where did you learn to do that?” she asked finally once she could catch her breath.

His fingers stayed curled inside of her. “I enjoy experimentation. I find a healthy dose of hypothesis testing is the most useful.”

She laughed a little at that, though it turned into a moan when he stretched his fingers and dragged them out of her cunt. “I will gladly hypothesis more with you,” she hummed.

He grinned and kissed her thigh. “I don’t take well to failure. I need to make it up to you.”

“Not a failure.” Her fingers carded through his hair again. “Do you think we can try some more?”

He rested his head against her inner knee and looked at her.

“I have a hypothesis that I can’t come three times in one night,” she said with a slight smirk. It was true though. She usually had a hard enough time coming once.

Ben tilted his head. “I would like to prove your hypothesis wrong.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

She was still sensitive from before, her body spasming a little when he brushed his thumb over her clit but she ground her hips down into the mattress. She wanted so much more. She had never been this needy before. Usually she was okay after a quick fuck but she wanted to spend all night with Ben’s hands and lips on her.

Ben’s broad fingers filled her perfectly and she moaned as he licked through slick and swirled his tongue around her clit as his fingers went to work on her cunt. Even his soft tongue was almost too much for her to handle, but she let the feeling wash over her and it sent shudders through her whole fucking body.

Everything, _everything_ was Rey. Her legs around his head, her pretty cunt on his mouth, the smell of her, the taste of her. He removed his fingers after a while and went back to lapping up the cum dripping from her.

He could definitely eat a full fucking course meal right here between her thighs. He didn’t even think of the hard floor under his knees, or the fact that the walls were thin and she had neighbors.

“ _Fucking_ hell,” Rey panted. Her hands slid up her torso and she couldn’t help but squeeze her nipples through her dress. They weren’t normally sensitive but right now they might as well have been a live wire.

She bucked her hips into Ben’s face and was half worried she broke his nose, but he slid those deliciously dark eyes up to her and moved one of his hands around to press her abdomen down.

“Again,” he said ( _asked_?), and Rey caressed her breasts and pinched her nipples between her fingers. She swore loudly as her body fought against his hold.

He grinned and started to rub his thumb over her clit while he licked and plunged his tongue into her entrance. She was shaking all over now. 

“Yes, oh God yes, please, _Ben_ ,” she crooned, her hands flying out to the mattress on either side of her. She moaned as he pushed three fingers inside of her dripping cunt and thrust into her faster, putting his tongue to her clit and pressing, twirling with just the tip.

She had thought last time was the hardest she’d ever come, but that was a lie. Her words fell into intelligible sentences as her whole body shook and tensed, her legs snapped around his head, holding him there as she nearly sobbed from pleasure and he stroked his fingers slower until she’d come crashing down.

She was a puddle, completely and utterly spent. She could smell nothing but her own arousal in the air.

Ben gently kissed her inner thighs and got to his feet, leaving her in her blissful state to clean himself up. He returned, mouth minty from stolen mouthwash and sat down on her bed near the headboard. She hadn’t moved, her face was set in a totally content expression and her hands were gently resting on her belly.

“Hey,” he said, and she opened her eyes.

“Hi,” she replied, scooting up with shaking arms and curling torso onto his lap. “That was—not what I expected from tonight.”

“I hope that’s a good thing.”

She snickered. “Undoubtedly. I would offer reciprocation but I’m so tired.”

He stroked her hair and watched the smile settle on her face. “There’s always next time.”

“Mmmm. Yes. Please. I would like that.” She really was about to fall asleep. “When can we go out again?”

“Whenever we can find the time.”

“Time is a socially constructed concept. Who needs it?”

“Most of the world,” Ben said. “I enjoyed myself tonight.”

“Me too.”

He shifted a little bit and gently tucked some hair behind her ear. “I think I should go. I already took you away from an evening of thesis work and I have an undergrad class in the morning.”

“Okay.” Rey somehow managed to get herself sitting, though now she realized just how ruined her bedspread was. She pushed herself up and kissed him, tongue sliding into his mouth. He hummed, pleased, and returned the kiss, squeezing her ass and hip before he stood up to go.

“Goodnight, Rey,” he said, pausing in her galley kitchen and looking back at her, sitting on her knees on her bed, flesh patchy red from their _experiment_.

“Goodnight, Ben,” she echoed the parting and watched as he left her flat. She slumped back once he was gone, wanting nothing more than to curl up and sleep but she had to clean first or morning!Rey was going to kill her.

With shaky knees, she stripped off her blanket and Kaydel’s dress—she would definitely have to mortifyingly get it dry cleaned of all the sex fluids soaked into the fabric—and grabbed her panties from the kitchen floor. She even managed to take a shower and find her phone. It had been on the kitchen floor, too.

She had barely crawled back into bed when her phone buzzed, singling she got a text. It was from Rose.

> **Um did you have a guy over?! Kaydel saw someone leaving your apartment.**
> 
> _I did and I’d like to keep it my business, thank you._
> 
> **Omg Rey asdfghjkl is it the same guy who you’ve been seeing for like a month? I’ve spotted him dropping you off but I’ve never seen him!**
> 
> _Is there no such thing as privacy in this modern age?_
> 
> **No there is not.**
> 
> _Don’t make it into a big deal okay. I’ve lived here for two years and it’s never been a thing before._
> 
> **Usually because you go to theirs.**
> 
> _Mine was closer. That’s all._
> 
> **Mkay. Whatever you say!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it hot in here or is it just me? 🥵


	6. VI.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has some devious plans for her and Ben's second date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached the apex of the fic, after starting up last chapter, aka all the smut. I hope you enjoy it as these two fools try to figure things out together. 
> 
> I regret nothing.

**VI.**

The next time Rey saw Ben, she had a devious plan.

But first, she had to get through an entire day of work. It had been a full work week since their initial date and Rey could still feel his hands and mouth on her. She was desperate for more of that, and for his cock to spend more than a few minutes out of his pants. She had some ideas.

“What’s got you smiling so much?”

Rey jerked herself out of her daydream and glanced over at Armitage Hux, one of the supervisors of the propulsion project she was working on. He was a good mathematician, but Rey was painfully aware of how much much he tried hitting on her. She ignored all of it. No, she wouldn’t go to dinner with him. No, she wouldn’t go to the Farmer’s Market with him. Endless _no_ s to direct questions and she also ignored anything he said casually while working, not wanting to accidentally give up her address or something.

He never touched her or said anything explicitly sexual, which she could give him a small amount of kudos for, but she still wasn’t interested.

“Just thinking of the amount of _Blue Earth_ I’ll be able to catch up to this weekend,” Rey lied in response. She wasn’t thinking of Blue Earth, though she did love that series. 

“She’s been chipper all week,” Jannah put in, pushing back from her computer to join in on the conversation.

“Am I not allowed to be happy? I made a breakthrough on my thesis.” That, at least, _was_ a truth. It just wasn’t the reason why she was grinning as she ran simulations at her desk. 

“That is certainly reason to celebrate,” Jannah replied. 

“Exactly, thank you,” Rey said, scooting back under her table before she twisted around to Hux. “Did you get those calculations for me about the new projections?”

Hux looked down at her, appearing unconvinced at her spotty lie about her happiness, but he sighed and nodded, pulling a folder out from under his arm. He laid it down on her outstretched palm. “I don’t think it’s going to work,” he cautioned as he walked to his table and put down his mug of tea.

Rey shrugged a shoulder. “That’s why I’m the prodigy and you’re the boss,” she said. Jannah snickered and Hux took the jab good-naturedly.

\--

This time they went outside for their date. They ate from a food truck and wandered through an art and music night festival in a park. Rey didn’t have to worry about running into anyone she knew in while in Chandrila, knowing that Friday nights was when Rose and Co. went out for drinks and trivia. She had skillfully said that she was busy.

There was no fooling anyone that she was going out with someone but she still didn’t want to tell them who.

Ben held her hand as they walked. It was nice, being in public with someone, even if she was just as disastrous at eating out of a foil wrapper as she was off a plate. No one blinked at them and there was no stigma for how they should act.

Rey kissed him a few times. He wasn’t the most fond of public displays of affection, but after the car ride last Sunday, he was a little more open to it. Kissing at least and holding hands. He had nuzzled his face into her hair as they waited for their food because the slight whiffs of her scent he kept getting weren’t enough. Rey had wrapped her arms around him and accepted the affection with a grin on her face.

By the time the stars were out in full force—drowned as they were by the city’s light pollution—and the music acts had dwindled down, Rey tugged on Ben’s hand and walked them to the small wooden bridge erected to cross the small pond that was home to ducks and fish alike. 

Without a word, she placed his hands around her waist and wrapped her arms around his neck. Before he could protest, she kissed him, pushed up onto her tiptoes, pressing herself flush against him. 

Her _need_ for him hadn’t dwindled all week. And her fingers and bullet vibrator were no substitute for Ben’s hands and tongue. 

“Rey,” Ben eventually broke off the kiss, firmly taking her waist in his hands and putting some space between them. His gaze was dark and filled with longing.

In any other circumstance, she would have applauded his control. Instead, she tugged on his coat collar, looking as annoyed as she felt. “ _Ben._ ”

She absolutely loved that he could fit her face in one of his hands, his fingers pressed gently against her cheeks. “Not in public,” he told her.

“You didn’t mind last time,” she chided, tilting her head up.

Ben blushed—he was _grown_ he shouldn’t be blushing—and was thankful for the dark. “I’d like to take you to bed properly,” he said instead, leaning in, breath brushing against her parted lips.

“Then take me to bed.” She closed the space between them, kissing him chastely before stepping back and offering her hand. “Well, come on.”

He took it and they made it back to his car without incident. He got behind the wheel and tossed his jacket into the backseat. “Where—”

“Yours,” Rey said. “I have a feeling you have better alcohol.”

Ben started the car. “Are we drinking?”

“Maybe a little.” She settled into the seat.

They pulled out of the parking lot, the car filled with amiable silence. “You’re not like how I thought you would be,” Ben said after a few minutes.

“Oh?” Rey tucked a leg under her so she could turn in the seat. “Is that a good thing?”

“Yes. I liked you when I saw you in a mostly professional environment. And I always wondered how you would be otherwise.”

“Mostly the same. I know what I want, and I go for it. I still talk a lot, don’t I?”

Ben chuckled. “Yes.”

Just then, his phone began to ring, nestled into the pocket of his jacket. He knew the ringtone and due to the late hour, he frowned. “Do you mind getting that for me?” he asked.

Rey nodded, reaching behind and pulling out the phone. _GRANDPA ANAKIN_ was the contact, with a photo.

All the air rushed out of Rey’s lungs. “Holy fuck,” she whispered.

With a puzzled look, Ben took the phone and swiped to answer, holding it to his ear as they idled at a light.

“Hello? Yeah, of course. I’m doing okay. How’s Nonna? Good. I’m picking up her present tomorrow. No, I didn’t forget.”

Beside him, Rey was having an existential crisis. Anakin was not a common name. It wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t common. And Rey knew what kind of work Ben did. _And_ she recognized the contact picture. She scrambled for her own phone and opened a search page, typing in Ben’s name for the first time.

He had a mention in a wikipedia article, underneath the _Personal Life_ section of one Anakin Skywalker, the first man in space.

_After marrying his wife in 1958, Anakin Skywalker welcomed his two children into the world while he was orbiting earth in 1961. Luke Skywalker became a household name in the physicist world, teaching at some of the world’s highest accredited schools throughout his illustrious career. Leia Organa-Solo did not follow in her father’s footsteps of space travel, though she did marry a pilot, Han Solo. Together they have a son, Benjamin Organa-Solo, giving Anakin Skywalker and his wife Padmé one grandchild. Ben Solo sprang into the world of physics in his uncle’s wake, becoming the youngest graduate professor at twenty-seven._

Rey was about to start hyperventilating. How had she not known?! Had Jannah known when she introduced them? Why had no one told her? Had he mentioned it casually during their not-dates and she had forgotten? No, she was just as good a listener as she was at talking. She would have remembered.

She wanted to curl up in a ball and rock in the seat, but instead she just clutched her phone, pale as a ghost as Ben finished his conversation with _Anakin Skywalker!_ and then pulled into the garage underneath his apartment building.

“Are you okay?” he asked, noticing she was quiet.

“Why didn’t you tell me that Anakin Skywalker was your grandfather?” she blurted out.

Ben pulled into a spot and put the car into park. “I didn’t think it was important yet. I would have told you if—”

“Oh my god!” Rey wailed and sat forward, digging her hands through her hair. “This can’t be happening.”

“I—I can’t tell if this is a bad thing or a good thing,” Ben said hesitantly. He gently put his hand on her back and she didn’t flinch away which was a good sign.

“It’s—it’s—” she hiccuped. Rubbing her face, she sat back and twisted in her seat to face him. Her face was a wreck. “This is—this is a conflict of interest.”

Ben’s frown deepened. “I fail to see what my grandfather has to do with our relationship.”

Rey would have swooned at the word _relationship_ if she didn’t feel like her world was in shambles. “But _Ben!_ ” She gripped his hand, digging her nails into his skin. “Your family—the Space Station is _named_ after your grandfather!”

“I’m aware. He holds that over my dad every day,” Ben said with a grumble. 

“Your family funds more than half of the Space Center. They’re practically NASA royalty!”

All things Ben knew. He wasn’t sure what the big deal was. He cupped her cheek with his hand and focused her attention on him. Her eyes were glossy with unshed tears of—anger? frustration? “Why are you reacting like this? What’s wrong?”

“It’s a _conflict of interest_ ,” she repeated again. Rey shook her head. “I’m a NASA employee, Ben, a young, relatively poor engineer. If they found out I’m dating someone whose family singlehandedly helped space travel become _a thing—_ ” She sat back against the car door and covered her face with her hands.

“You’re worried about what people will think?”

“Yes,” she said, voice muffled by her hands. “NASA scientists are nerds but we like gossip. And god, what if the tabloids find out? With the team coming down from the Station in January the news will be buzzing with space travel.” She knew it was irrational, that no one cared so much about astronauts as they did movie stars, but they also lived in the birthplace of space travel. It would always have more weight here. And the Skywalker family were old money, _big money_.

Ben was going to take her seriously, even if he thought her reasoning was a little screwed. “Okay, I can see how you’d think that.”

“It’s true.”

“It may be true. But I don't see why that should stop us.”

She peaked through her fingers. He looked so earnest, she wanted to believe him.

“I don’t go around calling myself a Skywalker because of all this. I get it, the royalty thing. It’s cool but annoying. And I still want to keep seeing you.”

Rey’s hands fell into her lap. “You do?”

“Yeah. It’s not like you’re using me for my money.” Pause. “Right?”

She rolled her eyes. “No. Though I did want you to set up a meeting for me and Doctor Ackbar—but we don’t have to talk about that now.”

Ben chuckled. “Okay. If it makes you feel better, we won’t tell anyone.”

“I haven’t.”

He squeezed her knee. “Please don’t freak out about this.”

Rey swallowed and nodded. “I—I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I—that was ridiculous.”

“It was actually a pretty responsible reaction,” Ben shrugged.

Rey rolled her eyes again and laughed a little. “Can we still go up to your flat?”

“I hope so.”

She nodded and they got out of the car. She tucked herself into his side even as they walked into the elevator and headed up to his floor. 

Rey had been right: his place was a lot nicer than hers. Hers wasn’t bad, but it was a studio and everything was crowded. His apartment had space, a bedroom with a door, a full sized kitchen, and a dining room area, though it looked like it was very little used.

Ben took Rey’s canvas jacket and she took off her shoes, leaving her in olive pants and a nice maroon blouse that had mostly been hidden all night. 

“Nice place,” Rey’s voice almost echoed in the space as she poked around and Ben went to the kitchen to pour some wine. “A little lonely though. I don’t know why I expected you to have a cat or something…”

Ben handed her a glass, which she gladly took, resting against the island counter in the kitchen. “I used to but she didn’t like how often I was gone so I had to give her to someone else.”

Rey frowned. “Oh shit, I’m sorry. Did I just ruin our night for a second time?”

“Nope,” Ben shook his head and sipped his drink. “I’ve grown past it. I don’t think there’s really anything you could do to ruin the night.”

“I could think of a few,” Rey teased.

“Please don’t _actively_ try to ruin our night.”

“I usually can’t say not to a challenge of mayhem, but I will be good.” She stepped close and took his shirt in her fist. “Because I really want tonight to be _good_.”

“It will be,” Ben replied before they kissed.

\--

The next hour became a blur of wine and kissing. They ended up on his couch, sans shirts, making out like teenagers. Rey’s brain kept muttering about this being _secret secret secret_ and that in it of itself was enough to make her wet. It was like she was doing something _wrong_ , even though it was absolutely right.

Rey was on her back, Ben kissing down her neck, only half-off the couch because he was too damned big. She ran her fingers through his hair and arched her back. His name slipped from between her lips and he lifted his face, looking down on her, propped up on one elbow.

She was practically glowing, her skin flushed, eyes wide, pink lips parted. Ben could not get enough of her.

“Take me to bed,” she said after a beat, a sultry smile curving her lips.

Ben smiled in return, crushing her mouth with his in a sloppy kiss before he moved her legs around his waist and circled an arm around her back. “Hold on,” he said and her “Why?” was cut off as he lifted her off the couch. Blood rushed every which way as he stayed there, one knee on the sofa, Rey’s legs tight around his torso. He adjusted his hold on her and she circled her arms around his neck.

“Oh, you’re as strong as you look,” she mused with a smile, leaning in to kiss him softly before he moved them into the bedroom. She had spent all week fantasizing about this. She could picture his mussed hair, his broad bare chest, his breath panting in her ear as he came, his tongue on and inside of her—she wanted all of it again.

Setting her on the bed, he pulled off her pants and her socks and removed his jeans too, leaving them in just their underwear. Rey laid back and he got on the bed beside her, running his hand down her torso. Her stomach fluttered when he parted her legs and trapped her thigh between his legs. His hand dipped low and so did his lips. He kissed her, tasting her tongue and gently rubbing his fingers over the wet cloth between her thighs.

Rey reached down and pulled his cock free of his boxers. Hard and hot under her touch, she stroked lazily, brushing her thumb along the soft, sensitive underside of the glans.

Without much warning, Ben slipped his hand under her panties and pushed a finger inside of her cunt. She panted out a _yes_ between kisses and he stroked around and inside, playing with her clit. She squeezed and stroked him too, eliciting moans from him, ones that rumbled through his chest and made him shift to push her legs open more and his cock closer to her hand. 

Ben wasn’t worried about coming early this time. He’d been dreaming of being inside of her all week and he wasn’t going to squander the chance. He rarely had thoughts like that, but he needed her like he needed to breathe.

“Oh, _oh god_ , Ben,” Rey whimpered out. She panted and pressed her head back against the mattress, her eyes closed. He kissed her exposed neck and her fingers joined his in the wet mess between her thighs. She rubbed her clit hard and he pumped his fingers.

She came hard and loud—fucking _beautifully—_ his eyes never leaving her face. She let go of his cock, her hand having stilled between her legs, and gripped the back of his neck, bringing his lips crashing against hers.

Their bodies pressed closer to one another. Ben held onto Rey’s face and kissed her lips, her cheeks, her chin. He brought his mouth close to her ear as she kissed his neck in return. “I need to be inside of you,” he said, voice low. “I’ve been thinking about you every night, Rey.”

She hummed in approval and they, in a tangle of limbs and hurried fingers, took off the rest of their clothing, leaving them both fully naked. She took in the sight of him, big and strong and powerful, anticipating the feeling of his cock inside of her again. She licked her lips and pushed him back.

“Sit,” she told him, and he did, pulling pillows out of the way and tossing them over to one side of the bed. He sat, his back to the plush headboard. Because _of cours_ e he had a plush headboard. Ben absently grabbed his cock, stroked and adjusted as she crawled over.

“I’ve got condoms,” Ben told her as she ran her hands up his legs. “I know last time was—”

Rey shook her head. “I liked last time. I’ve had a taste of you and I want all of you. All the time.”

She settled on his lap, spreading her legs around him and resting her hands on his shoulders. They paused to look at each other for a few moments before she leaned in and kissed him, soft and sweet. Ben’s hands fell to her waist and she scooted closer, running the slick folds of her cunt up the length of him.

He moaned and dug his fingertips in. “Shit, Rey—”

“I know,” she said, kissing him. Rey rolled her hips again and again until she couldn’t stand the tease. She reached down and took his long hard cock in hand, stroking and brushing her thumb over the leaking slit before she lined him up with her entrance. His hand joined hers and he smeared his tip with her slick before she settled down. 

Ben took a sharp intake of breath as she slowly took him in. Rey’s breathing resorted to short pants and she gripped his shoulders, peppered his face with kisses. She lowly sank down until he was fully nestled inside of her.

She felt filled all the way up to her fucking chest. “Jesus, Ben,” she whispered out as she adjusted her knees. “You’re so fucking big.”

He didn’t say anything, kissing her shoulder, grasping her thighs. Rey pressed her forehead to his and held his gaze. She pushed herself up a little, feeling the sweet drag of him against her walls as she did so, and moaned. She dropped down again against his lap and after a few test motions, they figured out a good position. She pushed herself up, kissing him, holding his shoulders, his face, wherever, and sank down, arching her back to take him fully each time. He bumped up against parts of her that hadn’t ever been reached.

“ _Fuuuuck_ , you feel amazing,” she whispered out.

“So fucking good, Rey.” He closed his eyes for a moment, bit his bottom lip. “Keep moving just…like that.”

The moans and gasping sentences of curses and names filled the air. She got wetter and wetter with each movement, and his hands gripping her hips helped her keep up her pace. The deliciously wet sounds of them moving together was like music, turning her on even more.

She leaned back just a little and Ben let out the biggest moan and _fuck_ she’d heard yet. With a smirk on her face, she bounced on his cock and he took her breasts into mouth and hand, sucking, rolling, kissing—

She couldn’t usually come from penetration alone but was totally okay with waiting. She clenched her muscles around him and he rumbled a growl against her sternum. She felt him shifting, one arm circling around her and she readied herself.

Her back hit the mattress and her world spun. He was on his knees over her, still inside of her after the switch. She moved her hips and he kissed the air right out of her lungs as he grabbed one of her legs under the knee and thrust into her.

The first thrust made her cry out. The angle was different—no the _best_ , but everything was going to be _good_ with Ben, she just knew it. 

Ben couldn’t help but bury himself inside of her with each thrust, wanting more of her, all of her.

He wanted everything so fucking much, but something told him that they’d have more time to do all of it so he let himself go. He went right to the edge and tore himself away from her luscious lips to grab her hips and force them down, grinding against his pelvis.

“Fuck, Rey—I’m close—”

Rey nodded. She was too full, too _everything_ to come right now. He felt _so fucking good_ and that’s all she cared about. “Come—come inside of me.” She stretched out her hands and felt for his on her thighs.

She watched his face as he pounded into her and came apart. He pulsed and twitched inside of her and dragged out his orgasm, pulling out and pushing back in a handful more times until he stopped, fully seated in her cunt and laid himself over her, shaking and unable to keep himself up.

He was heavy, but she liked the feeling of his weight on her. She moved his hair away from his face and kissed his hot, sweaty skin. 

“That definitely makes up for the kitchen sex,” she muttered. “Not that it was bad but wow—who knew professors could fuck.”

Ben laughed and she could feel it through her whole body. “Who knew?”

They stayed like that for a good five minutes, with him growing softer inside of her before he pulled out and suggested a shower. It was nice, and they didn’t do anything sexy. Unless Rey counted Ben washing her hair for her—which was equal parts soft and gentle enough for her to start crying, and also turned her on again.

“I don’t usually spend nights at other people’s places,” Rey said as she sat on the edge of his bed, towel drying her hair.

“You’re welcome to stay here,” Ben’s voice came from inside his bathroom.

She smiled a little and squeezed the ends of her hair. “I’d like to. I don’t work tomorrow.”

“Neither do I.” Ben poked his damp head out of the room. “I’m forever thankful for Saturdays.”

“Exactly.” She stood up and joined him in the humid bathroom. “I just didn’t want to assume.”

“I’m not going to kick you out,” Ben said, leaning down to gently kiss her bare shoulder. “Ever.”

“Thanks,” she said and she meant it. “I usually just sleep with a guy and leave. It’s easier that way. But for the first time I want to stay.”

“I will not take your change of heart lightly,” he told her. He met her eyes in the mirror behind his sink, sparkling with reverence for her letting herself be a little bit vulnerable with him.

She smiled gently.

Five minutes later and they were back in his bed. Rey was wearing one of his shirts and he was wearing boxers. They cuddled facing each other so they could still kiss. Rey would never get tired of kissing him.

Ben had to agree.

Eventually, they settled into the normal cuddling positions—spooning. Rey hadn’t ever really spooned or been spooned before; she always left before cuddling. But she liked the feeling of Ben’s chest against her back, supporting her, his arm circling around her and holding her close.

They both fell asleep before they realized it, with the lights still on and the ventilation fan whirling in the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you noticed the smut chapters are the longest?


	7. VII.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben's second date continues. Rey's devious plan comes into play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're dating. Like real people do.
> 
> Daddy kink imminent. This is the first time I've written anything like this, so be gentle.
> 
> And a big thanks to Maddy for looking this over for me! <3

**VII.**

The twelfth time Rey saw Ben, it was morning.

She woke up first. The sunlight was streaming through the windows. He didn’t have blinds or shades because his flat was high and there were no nearby buildings. Rey stretched and opened her eyes. She found herself looking at Ben, who was hugging his pillow under his head, turned toward her in his sleep.

His face was soft and relaxed, _peaceful_. He looked a bit younger than he did when he was awake.

Rey blinked widely at him, simply taking him in. The fact that this was the first time she’d woken up next to someone was kind of a big deal; all the romance novels she read would tell her that.

That would explain the fluttering in her stomach.

She reached out and hovered her hand over his face. He had dark moles and freckles on his face and chest and she connected the ones she could see with her eyes and then gently rested her hand on his cheek.

Ben stirred, reaching out for her.

She scooted back against him. He nuzzled into the hair at her neck, holding her tight.

His morning erection pushed up against her lower back.

With a little smile on her face, Rey reached between them and carefully tugged down his boxers and freed his hard cock. She swore it felt harder and bigger than last night.

She settled back against him, pulling her shirt up around her waist and tucked his cock between her thighs. She didn’t move, just held him there, pressed against her naked center.

The head of his cock poked out from between her legs and she ran her fingertips over the hot skin. Ben nuzzled into her neck.

His hand started to make its way under her shirt, reaching for one of her breasts.

Rey twisted her shoulders. “Morning, Ben,” she said in a small voice.

His reply was muffled against her shoulder, his teeth grabbing the seam of the borrowed shirt and tugging at it like a dog.

She chuckled and reached for him, running her hands through his hair. He let go of the shirt and leaned in to kiss her. She twisted to reach, keeping his cock trapped between her thighs. He squeezed her breast in hand and gently pulled back his pelvis and pushed against her ass, dragging his shaft between her legs.

She leaned back from the kiss and ran her fingers gently over his face. “Hi,” she said.

“Morning,” he said, dipping down to kiss her again and then moving to kiss her neck.

Rey could feel herself getting wet already. The power he had over her body was unlike any other. “Mmmmm, I could get used to this,” she said, so quietly she hoped he didn’t hear.

His hand snaked down from her hip and brushed against her clit.

Rey squeezed her legs. “Damn, I really need to pee,” she whined.

Ben opened his eyes for the first time and laughed at her. It wasn’t a “haha” laugh, but something that meant he liked every blunt thing that came out of her mouth. He patted her hip and released her. 

She detangled herself from him and stood.

Unfortunately, as soon as she’d peed and gotten to her feet, she was hungry. _Starving_. She could have eaten a whole cow.

Ben got out of bed at her request and he cooked her breakfast as she hugged a mug of coffee and watched him.

He was happier and more content than he’d felt in years, or maybe ever. It was probably too early between them for that sort of thinking, but he couldn’t help what he was feeling. She was something special and he knew that.

As he cooked, Rey opened up about her past. It started with, “Maz used to love cooking everyone bacon and eggs for breakfast and making sure we ate a banana, too.”

Ben asked, “Who’s Maz?”

And then Rey found herself revealing her childhood to him. She was a foster kid, but she was super smart so she flew through school. She graduated secondary school so young and was found by Maz Kanata. 

Ben couldn’t help his surprise at the name. “Wait, _Maz Kanata_?”

Rey nodded innocently, sipping her coffee.

“And here you were, freaking out over my grandfather being Anakin Skywalker!” He turned around and put a plate full of food in front of her. “Maz Kanata, the woman who single handedly computed the perfect projection equation _in her head_ to save my grandfather on reentry from his second space visit?”

Rey grinned a little sheepishly. “Yeah. She definitely fueled my love for space.”

“That’s incredible. _You_ are incredible.” He kissed her and then joined her at the dining room table with his own plate. “How did this not come up all the times we met to talk about your speech at my class?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Rey shrugged. “But the cat’s out of the bag now.”

Ben chewed some bacon and shook his head in disbelief. “Maz Kanata… _really_?”

She laughed and they made it through breakfast with light conversation.

After cleaning up dishes and putting them in the dishwasher, they made their way back to the couch. Rey was on her second cup of coffee and Ben was still working on his first.

“So, what are we gonna do today?” Rey asked over the rim of her mug.

“I—have a few ideas,” Ben said, circling his wrist around her ankle. He smirked into his cup.

Rey rolled her eyes. “That’s a given. But did you want to make a day of it? There’s got to be things going on in Chandrila on a Saturday.”

“Oh, loads. I just don’t keep up with everything. I found last night’s art spot and stopped looking.”

Rey stood, her shirt riding up and revealing a peek at one perfect curve of a cheek. Ben had yet to completely come down from his morning wood and he was already regretting letting her leave the bed before he had her again.

But like she said, they had all day.

Rey returned with her phone and they spent a good hour going through things. There was a movie playing they both wouldn’t hate; a few art galleries; the ever standing museums, both natural sciences and art. All in all, there was plenty to do.

But, as their food settled and their minds and bodies woke up more, it was hard to ignore. Ben’s cock was doing a poor job of hiding its arousal through his lounge pants and Rey’s spotty pink cheeks was a clear sign that her head was racing toward more physical thinking.

Finally, she set aside both her phone and mug and turned to him. “I wanted to ask you something.”

Ben set aside his mug as well, putting all his attention on her. “I’m all ears.”

“Um…it’s a sex thing.”

“Okay.”

“Can I call you Daddy?” Rey asked, the words coming out in a rush.

Ben's eyebrows rose a smidge. That was _not_ what he expected her to say, though he should know to expect the unexpected from her. And then—well he was confused because he was not entirely sure what she meant. So he told her. “I—don’t really know what that means. Is it—it’s not like—is it—?”

Rey could be patient. He was already an amazing lover, but she was getting more comfortable with him and wanted to see what he was up for. The daddy thing was—it sparked many a meme, but it was just as real anything else. And it was _hot_.

She thundered on. "Just because you're so big and strong and I want you to take care of me." 

Ben was already far beyond the point of saying no to Rey. So he was going to either have to start now, or try to figure this out. “Explain it to me," Ben said finally. He was in way over his head, but he wanted to do anything for her, if it would make her feel good.

Rey twisted on the couch to face him more. "Did you ever see Mr and Mrs Smith? They have that fight in their house and Angelina kicks his ass and then goes ‘who's your daddy now?’ And then they like wreck their house having sex? It's...it's like that vibe. It's just...sexy when I think about it.”

He blinked. “So you want me to be Angelina Jolie?”

She snorted with affection. “No. I want you to be you. You’re a big guy and…I don’t know, it just fits. It makes me hot. Is that enough? I’ll do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want to me, tell me what to do, be a little rough. Wreck a house. Metaphorically.”

“Oh,” Ben was beginning to get the picture. He knew about sugar daddies and that whole realm of society that he rarely spared a thought for, but this was different even from that. “It’s like—roleplaying?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“I thought you didn’t like to be reminded of your age,” he said carefully.

“I don’t but—” She dragged her hands through her hair and perched on her knees. “I feel really safe with you. And I _like_ that you’re older than me. And it’s not about age. It’s about obedience. I want to let go during sex for once. It’s usually such a mechanical thing for me.”

He thought about it.

"Or I could call you Professor," Rey offered at Ben's hesitation.

"I uh...I think that would get me in trouble. If my Pavlovian response to hearing _Professor_ is to get hard, I think I’d lose my job.”

Rey snickered a little evilly. “Okay. We don’t have to. It was just a suggestion.” She knew it was a lot to ask. Not everyone was into these sorts of things. Rey understood that and would accept whatever his answer. Letting someone else have control after a life of struggling to survive and doing _everything right_ was something that she craved. And this was the first time she was ready to ask someone to do it with her.

“I’ve never done anything like that before.”

Rey took that as him turning down her idea. Which was fine. She was _totally okay_ with the sex they’d been having. More than okay. She started to resettle herself normally on the couch next to him.

“But we can try,” he finished after a beat.

With her heart fluttering and a breath caught in her throat, Rey crawled into his lap, knees on either side of his thighs. "Tell me what you want to do, Daddy.” Her voice was pitched just so.

He put his hands on her hips. “I—”

“I’ll walk you through it,” she said with a little smile. She kissed him gently. “You can call me kitten or baby or little girl. And dirty talk is good. You can be rough.”

“I’m not sure if I can.”

“It’s about control, so just remember that I _want you_ to do all this stuff to me,” she said, rocking her hips against his erection. “You’re in control, but you can let loose a little too. I think most people want to," she added, leaning close, her breath hot, her lips brushing the shell of his ear. “Do you know what you want?”

Ben took in a deep breath. It was definitely appealing, even through the newness. He squeezed her hips and gently thrust up against her. He always told Poe that his brain wasn’t wired _that way_ , but suddenly he could think of a hundred different things he wanted to do with Rey. 

Most of them involving more than a naked slender wrist.

“Yes,” he said.

“I’ll tell you to stop if I don’t like something,” she added, sitting back on his thighs. She rested her hands on his shoulders.

“Okay.”

Rey swallowed and tossed her hair a little before she settled her eyes on him. “What do you want me to do, Daddy?”

The word, the name, plucked at _something_ in Ben’s chest, though he couldn’t put a finger on it exactly. “You should be naked.” He pinched her— _his—_ shirt. “Take this off.”

She pulled the oversized shirt over her head and it pooled on the floor. “Can I kiss you?”

He hadn’t realized she would be asking for _permission_. But it made sense. She put everything they were doing in his hands. “You can kiss me, kitten,” he tried it out.

She smiled at him a little and did, kissing his lips. She moved her hands to his shoulders and leaned in, her hardening nipples brushing against his bare chest. He circled his hands around her hips and squeezed. She made a little noise in the back of her throat and Ben’s cock got harder. 

His single minded brain wanted to just fuck her, _hard_ , but he vowed to give her more than that. She had asked for this, _wanted_ something from him.

He took her face in his hands, holding her still and pulling away. He held onto her bottom lip between his teeth, biting down a little and tugging. One of his hands slid around the front of her throat. He could feel her pulse fluttering under his thumb. He didn’t press too hard, but he kept his hand there.

“Can I touch you, Daddy?” Rey asked, heart jumping in her chest. She hadn’t been able to _reciprocate_ quite as much as she wanted to after their first date. “Please, let me touch you.”

Ben thought about it. “If you’ll be good.”

Rey nodded as much as she could within his hold. “I will. I’ll be good, Daddy. I promise.”

_Fuck_ , this was starting to actually work for him. Ben let her go and she got off his lap. He lifted his hips so she could pull off his pants and boxers. His cock rested against his abdomen and Rey settled on her knees between his thighs.

“I’ll be good, Daddy,” Rey said, leaning up and wrapping her hand around the base of his cock. “I’ll make you feel good.”

He watched her as she stroked up and down his shaft. He probably was supposed to be saying things, but he was content to just watch her. Her eyes sometimes flickered up to his. 

“I’m so wet thinking about you inside of me, Daddy,” Rey said, reaching with her free hand toward her legs.

“Don’t.”

She froze.

“Don’t touch yourself. Only I get to touch you.”

Rey nodded and put her hand instead on his thigh. “Yes, Daddy.” She pushed herself up on her knees a little bit more. With one last squeeze at the tip, she leaned in and pressed a kiss to the hot flesh of his cock. 

“You think you can take me, little girl,” he said, sitting forward. He took her chin in his hand and tilted her head up. “ _All_ of me? In your pretty little mouth?”

“Yes, Daddy. I want to.”

Ben moved his hand, pushing two fingers against her lips. She parted her lips and he pushed the fingers into her mouth. She curled her tongue around them and sucked.

“If you’re a good girl, if you do what I tell you, I’ll touch you.”

Rey nodded as he pulled his fingers from her mouth, leaving strings of saliva between them. “I want you to touch me so badly, Daddy. I’ll be the best girl.” She dipped her head down and slipped her mouth around the head of his cock.

Ben fisted his hand in her hair, not pushing her but just keeping her steady. “God damn,” he gasped out.

She took more of him, slowly, as much as she could at first before pulling him out of her mouth. His cock shone with her spit and she stroked down the rest of his length. 

“You’re doing good, baby,” he muttered, loosening the hold on her hair and stroking his hand down her neck.

Rey took more of him in her mouth the next time, relaxing her throat muscles and trying not to gag. Ben’s hand tightened in her hair again. 

“ _Fuuuuck,_ ” he hissed out, tilting his head back, accidentally pulling her head forward. She choked a little and pulled his cock out of her mouth to cough. He almost apologized; his eyes probably were saying it to her even as something else fell from his lips. “I won’t have you gagging on me, little girl.”

Rey wiped her chin with her wrist. “I’m sorry, Daddy. It’s just, you’re so big. I don’t know if I can do it.”

“You’ll do it if you want me to touch you today. I don’t touch little girls who can’t take Daddy all the way.”

A little determined look came over Rey’s face. It was fucking adorable. “Yes, Daddy.” She went at it again, pulling him into her mouth, hollowing her cheeks. She took in all that she could of him, feeling his tip hitting the back of her throat. If there was any more, she couldn’t do it. She _couldn’t_.

Ben pulled her head back with his hand in her hair. She balanced herself with hands on his thighs as he moved her and thrust into her mouth at the same time. Her eyes watered, but fuck _this_ was what she wanted.

He kept going until he felt himself spiraling toward the edge. “Fuck, kitten, do you want Daddy to come?”

Rey tilted her eyes up to him and nodded as much as she could. 

“I’m not going to come in your mouth,” Ben said, somehow able to keep a coherent sentence going. “Make me come and I’ll touch you, baby.”

With his hand still tangled in her hair, Rey took his cock out of her mouth with a pop of her lips and resumed the pumping action with her hand, keeping her eyes on his as he tossed his head back and moaned. The hot flesh pulsed under her fingers and creamy lines of cum decorated his chest. 

He shuddered under her touch. “So fucking nice, kitten,” he said, stroking her hair. “Now come clean up the mess.” He cracked open an eye but Rey was already fulfilling his demand. She got onto the couch next to him, getting onto her knees and bracing her hands against his hips.

“Good girl,” he said, stroking a hand down her back as she licked the cum off his chest.

“You’re so good to me, Daddy,” she said between licks. “Will you touch me now, Daddy? You said you would. Please, _please_.”

Ben leaned in close, burying his face in her hair. “Hey, Rey? This is okay, right?”

Rey pressed a soft kiss against his chest. “Fuck, yes, Ben. You’re so fucking hot like this, y’know.”

He chuckled and planted a kiss on her head before he settled back. “You’ve been good, kitten,” he agreed. He brushed his knuckles against her abdomen and brought his fingers against her center. She _was_ so fucking wet for him. He stroked his fingertips through the hot awaiting folds, avoiding her clit every time. He pressed his middle finger into her up to just the first knuckle.

Rey keened and wiggled her hips, panting against his chest. “Please, Daddy, please touch me. I need you. Your fingers inside of me. I cleaned—everything, please.” She gripped his hips, her forehead pressed against his collarbone.

Ben obliged just a little, pushing his finger all the way into her. “Good girl, such a good girl,” he said, wanting to spend a little time praising her. He added a second finger and she moaned, blunt teeth scraping against his skin.

“So good, _s’good_ ,” Rey moaned, rocking her hips back. “Touch me more, _please_. Touch my clit—”

Ben’s fingers were gone in a second and he took her chin in his hand, sticky with her own arousal. She sat back on her heels. “I’ll touch you when and where I want to, little girl,” he said with a little more fierceness than before. Rey shivered and nodded. 

“I’m sorry, Daddy.”

“If you keep telling me what to do, I’ll stop touching you. I don’t touch bad girls.”

Rey’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry. I won’t say anything again. You can touch me however you want. I can make it up to you, Daddy. Please let me try again. I can be good. I can be so good.”

“You want to make it up to me?” Ben asked.

“Yes, Daddy, please. I’ll do anything. Whatever you say.”

Ben nodded and let her go. He scooted to the edge of the sofa and then, with one fluid moment, he grabbed Rey around the legs and he lifted her over his shoulder. She lolled behind him and let out a little laugh of surprise that he didn’t reprimand her for. 

He gently put her down on the kitchen island. The cold granite top shocked her and she shivered. 

“You’re gonna make Daddy hard again,” Ben said, standing between her knees. His cock was still half-hard, not quite spent.

“Tell me what to do, Daddy,” she whined.

He put his hand around her neck, squeezing. “Only good girls get my fingers to fuck them. Do you want me to fuck you, kitten?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“How many fingers can your little cunt take, baby?”

Rey blinked. “Two?”

Ben loosened his hold and took a step back.

“No, no,” Rey continued. “I’ll—I’ll take however many fingers you give me. I can take them all, I’ll take whatever you want, Daddy. Please, just fuck me. I want to come. Please, Daddy, let me come.” She reached desperately for his hands.

He turned back to her and pressed his thumb to her clit. She sighed in anticipation. He rubbed in a small circle and Rey moaned, their gazes locked together. “Good girl,” he said and Rey felt a jolt of pleasure travel from her brain to her clit and gasped. “Be a good girl and lay back, kitten.”

She did, shivering at the cold up her spine. 

Ben was big all around. He took her wrists—those slender fucking wrists—in one hand and pressed them above her head. Rey kept her legs parted and rocked her hips toward him as he slipped two fingers inside of her already soaked cunt.

“You’re such a dirty fucking girl,” he said, surprising himself with his intensity.

“I am,” Rey keened.

“Making me fuck you on the kitchen counter.”

Rey panted, squeezing her trapped hands into fists. “I lo—love the way you fuck me with your fingers, Daddy. You’re so— _so_ good to me.”

“I fucking am,” Ben said, slamming his fingers into her as far as they would go, adding a third, stretching her almost to her limit. His head fell against her chest and his lips found a pebbled nipple. He sucked, swirling his tongue around, and she whimpered.

“Fuck, _Daddy_ ,” Rey moaned out. “I’m so close. I—can I come, Daddy? Pleaseplease _please_.”

Ben slowed his thrusting to a stop. Did she _want_ him to stop her from coming? That was a thing people did right? The ultimate tease.

He stopped, pulling his fingers out of her cunt. 

“Not yet, kitten,” he told her, pulling her to a sitting position with her trapped hands. “Taste yourself.”

He waited for Rey to say no, but she opened her mouth and let him slide his fingers coated in her slick over her tongue. She cleaned his fingers and gave him a small, baby smile.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

Ben gave her a chaste kiss and then grabbed her around the torso, a mirror of last night but with fewer clothes. Her legs wrapped around him and he walked them into the bedroom. He tossed her onto the bed and she got up to her knees quickly.

“I can get you hard again, Daddy,” she told him, reaching for him. He was almost there.

“Turn around,” Ben told her. Rey snatched her hand back and did as she was told. He pushed her gently forward until she was on all fours. He stepped up and she could feel his cock hanging low, pressed against her quivering cunt. “You’re so ready for me, baby, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Rey whined. “Yes, Daddy. I want your big cock inside of me. I want to take it all. I need it. I need you to fuck me, Daddy.”

Ben hooked his fingers around her hips, pulling her flush against his pelvis. “Soon, kitten. Gotta get Daddy ready first.”

She wiggled her hips and ass. “Yes, Daddy.”

Ben reached forward with one hand and wrapped the ends of Rey’s hair in his hand, tugging. She let him, her neck stretching, the pull against her scalp sending shivers down her spine. “You’re gonna make me hard again, kitten,” he told her. “Make Daddy hard again and I’ll fuck you good, baby. I’ll let you come all over my cock.”

“I need to come,” Rey said, pushing her hips back again. “I need to come, Daddy.” She moved her ass and hips, trying to slide her cunt down his growing-hard shaft. She left her slick wetness on him and he moaned, holding onto her hip and her hair. “Is that good, Daddy? I want to make you feel good. I’m a bad, dirty girl but I can make you feel better.”

“Fuck.” Ben gritted his teeth. His cock was growing harder by the second. “Yes. You’re my dirty little girl. You take my whole fucking cock and I’ll make you come.”

Rey felt his tip bump against her clit. “ _Yes,_ Daddy.”

Ben let go of her hair and grabbed her ass in his hands. He spread her folds open with his thumbs. His dick was so hard he didn’t need to guide it in. “Ready to take me, baby?” he gasped out, sliding inside of her quickly, right to the fucking hilt.

She cried out, grasping the covers under her hands. “Fuck, Daddy, yes. You’re so fucking big. You’ll split me right open.”

“ _Fuck_.” She was tight, hot and wet all around him and Ben lost all thoughts for a few moments. He pulled out an inch and sank back in. She felt so fucking good. “Fuck me, kitten,” he muttered. And then, winding her hair in his hand again, he repeated it louder, “Fuck me, kitten.”

“Ye—yes, Daddy,” Rey hiccuped. She was so full, she didn’t think she could feel this fucking full. Biting down on her lip, she moved forward, feeling him slide half out of her and then back again. He met her at the end, his hips slamming against her ass. 

It was easy to do, and easy to do fast and keep it up. She whimpered with pleasure every time he thrust into her at the end. “Fuck, yes, Daddy. You feel so good. Letting me fuck you—I never want to stop fucking you.” 

“That feels fucking good, kitten? I’m gonna fuck you until you can’t walk.”

“Yes, please _please_ please,” Rey begged. “Harder. Fuck me harder, Daddy.”

Ben let go of her hair and took her hips in his hands. He fucked into her, hearing her cries and pleas. His breathing grew haggard and he felt like he was getting high watching him cock disappear into her with each thrust. He wasn’t even close to coming.

“You’re—you’ve been such a good girl,” he said between thrusts. “Should Daddy let you come?”

“Yes!” Rey yelled. “Please, Daddy, let me come, I need to come. Let me come all over your big cock.”

Ben slowed his thrusts and leaned over her, his chest pressed against her back. He kept himself upright on one fisted hand and slid the other around her hip, finding her clit. He pounded into her, barely pulling out of her before pushing in again and finally, blissfully touched her clit. She was so tense that she cried out immediately, but she pushed it off again and again until the hard nub started going numb with his rubbing. 

“Don’t play, kitten,” Ben panted into her ear. “Come for Daddy.”

Rey whimpered and gasped. A moment later, she came, seeing white lights on the back of her closed eyelids and clenching around him as he thrust deep inside of her. “Oh fuck, fucking, fuck fuck, yes, yes,” Rey hissed out. She couldn’t breathe and he gave her a little break, sinking deep inside of her as her walls squeezed around him. She sucked in shallow breaths as he stood back and held her hips.

“Thank you,” she said after a minute. “Thank you for letting me come, Daddy.”

He pulled out of her and slammed back into her. “You’ve been so good kitten,” he said, stroking down her back.

“You can—you can slap my ass if you want,” Rey said, her regular voice a little less pitchy than her kitten voice. 

Ben squeezed. “I don’t know—”

“Pain and pleasure is good. Try it?”

Ben was as incapable of saying no to her as she was to saying no to him right now. He lifted a hand and gently tapped her ass.

“Oh! Punish me, Daddy,” Rey said, wiggling her ass back against him. “Punish me for not coming soon enough. Hit me, Daddy.”

He narrowed his eyes a little and tried again, this time harder. Rey jerked forward at that and yelped. Her skin stayed red from where he slapped her. “You should come when I tell you, kitten,” he said. He slapped the other asscheek.

“Yes, yes I should. I’m a bad girl, Daddy. I’ve been a bad girl.” 

“You have been a bad girl. Such a bad fucking girl, making Daddy come all over himself, not coming when I told you to.” He slapped her again, his hand hitting with a resounding crack. “Fuck, Rey, I’m sorry.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder and smirked. “Punish me, Daddy. I’m such a bad girl. I deserve it.”

“You do,” he said and he pulled out of her. She whimpered, missing him, wanting more, needing everything. “Get into the middle of the bed and lay down on your stomach. Daddy’s going to show you how he deals out punishment.”

Rey shimmied up the bed and lay there, her arms tucked under a pillow, head tilted to the side. He straddled her thighs and gently slapped her ass again. She whined.

“I’m gonna fuck you so hard, kitten,” he said, his voice low. He grabbed his cock and pushed inside of her in one go again because _fucking hell_ she could take him so easily with how wet she was. Rey gasped and choked on her own spit, coughing. He braced himself on his fists and thrust. She bounced a little on the bed. 

“Please, Daddy,” she yelled. “Please, fuck me harder, Daddy. I’ve been so bad. Teach me a lesson, Daddy.”

Ben gritted his teeth and pounded into her as she raised her hips from the mattress so he could hit all her spots inside. Her ass tingled and her cunt was so spent that everything was too much and she never wanted it to stop. She wanted him to fuck her until she couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.

“Fuck!” Ben grunted and got up on his knees. He gripped her hips and pulled her toward him and thrust forward.

Rey squeezed her eyes shut, half-convinced he was going to fuck right through her. “Fuck yes, Daddy, just like that. Fuck—”

“I’m gonna come inside of you, kitten,” Ben panted out. “You’re gonna be filled to the fucking brim.”

“I want it, Daddy,” Rey cried out.

With a growl, Ben leaned over her again, pounding into her, their skin slapping together, the sound filling the room. He bit down on her shoulder as his thrusting got more erratic and then he sat back, holding her down against the bed with his hands. His orgasm ripped through him and he thrust through it, not wanting to stop, emptying his cum into her and shuddering to a final stop once the sensation got too much.

He let out one final _fuck_ before he lay himself over her again, this time marginally held up by his elbows. He buried his face in her hair and spasmed as his dick moved and rubbed the sensitive head against her channel. 

“That was amazing,” Rey mumbled into her pillow. Ben kissed her neck, her back, her shoulder where he’d bitten and left marks, and finally pulled out of her, flopping down on his back.

“I kind of got into it,” he said, eyes half-closed.

Rey snuggled up next to him even though both of them were hot to the touch. “I noticed,” she grinned. She kissed his chest. “I like it. Maybe not every time but—if you wanted to do it again sometime.”

“Yes,” he said, rubbing her arm with the back of his fingers. “Yes. I never want to leave this fucking bed.”

She laughed and pulled his arm around her as she cuddled his chest. “We have all weekend.”

“What about your thesis work?”

“I can get to it on your computer. If that’s okay.”

“More than okay,” he said, kissing her hair. They lay like that for a while, until their bodies cooled and the sweat started to dry on their skin. “Fuck, we should probably get cleaned up.”

“Yeah, but laying here is nicer.”

“Mmmmm, can’t argue there,” Ben said. “Unless I set up a bubble bath.”

Rey perked up. “Do you have a Lush subscription and didn’t tell me?”

“Honestly, yes. Poe got one for me as a joke but I have a stash under my sink.”

She laughed, full and loud, and kissed his neck. “I could marry you,” she mumbled.

Ben didn’t say anything to that. Anything he could think to say would ruin everything. Instead, he just kissed her lips and finally got out of bed for the second time already that day.

It was going to be a long, glorious weekend.


	8. VIII.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben's clandestine meetings continue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of plot, who knew?

* * *

**VIII.**

Being a secret meant that every time Rey saw Ben, it came with a new thrill. 

Rey was very good at keeping secrets. No one was under any impression that she _wasn’t_ going out with someone; it was a known fact. But she didn’t spill the beans about who it was. She made sure Ben didn’t get out of the car when he dropped her off at her building, and he never picked her up from work anymore. Their clandestine meetings stayed that way.

No one pushed, except for Hux, who somehow found out through the grapevine and continued to jab at her. Like it was a crime to be dating someone. She disliked him more and more each day, which was weird for her since she had yet to have come across anyone working for NASA who she didn’t like.

There was a first for everything.

Ben kept his promise too; he didn’t talk with Poe about her anymore, though there was no way to hide their relationship fully. Poe knew they’d gone out at least once, even though they weren’t dating at the time and Ben knew Poe; he’d make the leap. And for once, it wouldn’t be exaggerated.

November slipped by them, resulting in seven more dates, at least twenty orgasms, and Rey’s newfound relish for her thesis. It was as if something had been blocking her mentally for months and now everything was becoming clear.

Maybe it was because she was happy and relaxed for the first time in her life. She was no longer lonely. She never used to admit to herself that she _was_ , but now that she wasn’t, she looked back on the past few years of her life with a hollow sorrow.

She was happy that she’d found someone to fill that gap in her life. Ben was more than just a peg to fit into a hole in her life, he was a whole puzzle, forcing her to figure out how to fit him into her world. She liked the challenge.

It was the first Sunday of December and Rey was currently dressed in one of Ben’s unbuttoned dress shirts and pink panties, eating ice cream out of the tub and getting a foot rub. Ben sat next to her on the couch, wearing underwear and nothing else, hair half-dried and floofy.

“I think we’ve perfected my speech,” she told him, waving a spoon around. “I’m going to open with something Maz used to tell me when I lived with her.”

Ben dug his knuckle into the bottom of her foot and she jerked and glared at him. He apologized by kissing her leg. “Are you going to tell me or is that going to be my surprise?”

“Surprise,” Rey nodded. “Since you know about Maz already. You cheat.”

“I did not cheat. You willingly started telling me about your past. I’m sorry I recognized one of the name of most important women in NASA’s history.”

Rey’s glare softened and she snuggled down deep into the cushions. “She is pretty great, though you wouldn’t know it by just looking at her.”

“Do you still keep in contact with her?”

“I do. She’s getting very old, but she still lives at home with a caretaker. I think they have a little romantic tryst going on.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“Is that legal?” Ben asked, giving up on his foot rub and simply massaging her legs gently with the pads of his fingers. 

“It’s nothing but sweet talk. It’s cute.” She wiggled her toes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Ben reached for the ice cream and rolled his eyes as Rey dug out a spoonful for him to feed him. At least it didn’t end up half down his face and chest this time. 

“I think she’d probably like you,” Rey said before stuffing one of the remaining bites of ice cream into her mouth. That was as close as Rey could get to saying her parents would like him—she didn’t know her family at all. Maz was _it_.

Ben squeezed her ankle. “Maybe we can visit for Christmas. If she celebrates Christmas. I don’t so I have free time.”

“I don’t either. I mean, Maz loves it. She used to have us decorate her whole huge house even when there was just me and two other kids she was fostering. It was nice to feel like we belonged somewhere, deserved something.” She said it casually, but the shift in her tone was evident.

“Oh hey.” Ben scooted closer, pulling her into his lap. She settled against him and tucked her face against his neck. “Is it too early to say that you belong with me?”

“No. It’s nice.”

“Good. You belong with me. And you absolutely, without a doubt, deserve everything you want and everything you work for, Rey.”

Rey squeezed her eyes shut. “You think so?” she asked once she was sure her voice was steady enough.

“I do.” Ben gently stroked her back and they stayed that way, quiet for a little while before he asked, “Are you going to finish that ice cream? It’s about five minutes away from being soup.”

Rey sniffed and looked at the pint held tightly in her hand. “It’s all yours,” she said with a snicker, handing it over and getting to her feet. 

Ben caught her wrist in his hand and held onto her gently. “Are you sure that you’re okay? I meant what I said.” He frowned. “I hope it didn’t freak you out.”

“No, it didn’t.” She leaned down and kissed him, tasting sweet chocolate. “I would tell you if it did.”

She would. He knew she would. But he had to be sure.

\--

Rey glanced at the clock. It was nearly the end of Ben’s class time. He had been standing behind her for the past forty minutes, arms crossed, leaning against the whiteboard. She was wearing the same outfit from the time she’d found him at that cafe, looking both professional and gorgeous at the same time.

Her speech was rambling and long. She often got caught up and took a detour before finding herself back at the core of what she was supposed to be talking about. His class was attentive, chuckling along with her. They peppered her with questions once her speech was done and now time was winding down.

“Any final _pertinent_ questions?” Ben asked, stepping in. The questions had been a lot about her work, but even more about some of Rey’s more personal experiences. She answered all of them with a smile and cheerful demeanor. It wasn’t totally conducive to teaching but it didn’t really matter. The semester was coming to a close, even if he’d continue with this class after the holiday break. 

He stayed standing next to Rey, careful to keep a respectable distance between them. 

“I don’t mind _any_ questions,” Rey countered, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

Someone asked what the difference was between working with the public in the tourist center, or in her lab.

Rey placed a hand on her hip. “Not much really. There’s a lot of crying on both sides of the line.”

The class chuckled, all thirteen of them, and then it reached the top of the hour. There was a lot of shuffling as everyone got up to leave. On their way out, all of them stopped to thank Rey for coming in, offering a hand to shake or a small joke.

She was contentedly tired by the time it was only her and Ben in the room. She collapsed into an empty desk. “How’d I do, teach?” she asked, holding her chin in her hands.

Ben smirked at her. “Pretty good I think.”

“I wonder what I’d put this under on my CV.”

“Do you need one? You already have a job.”

Rey blinked and waved a finger at him. “Touché, I do. Oh well. I had fun.”

“Thanks for agreeing to do it,” Ben said, gathering up his things and shoving them into his bag. “I never told you but this whole idea was thought up on the spot when you asked me why I’d come to work to find you.”

Rey arched an eyebrow at him. “Really? It sounded so planned.” She was teasing.

“Hey, it worked out in the end, right?” He slung the strap of his messenger bag over his shoulder and held out a hand to help her up. “Ready?”

Rey took his hand and got to her feet. He tugged her close and she bumped against his chest. “Hey,” Ben said, smiling at her softly.

“Hello. What if someone walks in?”

“No one will walk in,” Ben assured her, dipping down to kiss her. 

The kiss lingered and smeared Rey’s lipstick across his lips and chin. They had to spent a few extra minutes to rub it off and then they headed out into the hall. Ben had a faculty meeting to attend, and they’d already talked about where to meet later. Rey was going to grab herself some food and then take a bus to his place. She had his key, which she found very daring. When he’d given it to her discreetly just before his class, she had said, “Oh, how very trusting of you, Professor Solo.”

“Very,” Ben had replied, wanting nothing but to kiss her but refraining for her sake.

For now, they parted in the hallway and Ben made his way to a meeting with Phasma and Amilyn and a handful of other professors, and Rey made her way to his flat.

It was big and lonely without him in it, but she raided his liquor stash and turned on a music channel on his TV before grabbing his laptop and signing into one of her many online copies of her working thesis. 

\--

“You’re in for a rude awakening today,” Hux said as he walked into their lab with a covered cup of tea. There wasn’t supposed to be food in here, but he always brought in tea in a to-go cup.

“And why is that?” Jannah asked, only half pay attention.

Rey was scribbling away on a notepad, completely engrossed in her work.

“Not you,” Hux continued, sitting down. “Rey.”

“Rey? What has she done?” Jannah asked.

The young woman in question didn’t perk up at her name.

Hux’s eyes narrowed at her. “Workplace gossip,” he said, grinding the word out between clenched teeth.

Jannah turned away from her computer, twisting so she could see him. “What’s wrong with a little workplace gossip?”

“Nothing. Isn’t that what all workplaces have?”

“My point exactly.” Jannah frowned.

“I know who Rey’s been going out with,” Hux said. 

“I don’t think that’s any of our business,” Jannah said. She turned her attention to Rey and loudly said the girl’s name to jostle her out of her work. 

“Wha—what?” Rey turned in her rolly seat and frowned at both of them. Her frown deepened at Jannah’s concern and Hux’s smugness. “What’s going on?”

“I know who you’ve been seeing,” Hux told her.

Rey blinked and sat back in her chair. “What? How the hell is that any of your business? That’s _private_.”

“It’s gossip. And I hate not knowing.”

“You’re an asshole,” Rey muttered, not caring that she probably should not be cursing out one of her supervisors. 

“I agree,” Jannah said, getting to her feet. Her cheerful yellow dress did not match the serious demeanor of her face and posture. “It is none of your business Hux and frankly I’m a little tired of your behavior. This is grounds for HR involvement.”

Hux continued to look at Rey, his expression making her squirm. She wanted to punch him square in the face. But then Jannah said HR and his face fell. “What? You can’t do that.”

“I certainly can. This is bordering on sexual harassment. I know you’ve been asking Rey out and seeking out things in her personal life is going too far. Especially with the power dynamic.”

“Whoa, whoa.” He put up his hands. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It doesn’t matter. Rey has told me that you’ve made her feel uncomfortable before.”

Rey sucked in a breath. She meant it jokingly, but also not, now that she thought about it. “I—I don’t want to get you fired,” she said, standing up as well. “Please, just stop. I’m sure there’s someone else out there who will date you, but it’s just not me. And I keep my personal life private for a reason.”

“Shit, yeah. I—I don’t usually listen to gossip. I fucken hate it, actually.” He nervously ran a hand through his hair.

“Rey, if you want to report this as a sensitive incident, I’ll gladly help you with the paperwork,” Jannah said, her message clear in her eyes.

Rey could back down. Hux looked miserable enough, and he _was_ a whiz with numbers, but should she let him do this to her, or any other young women he may come across? “Okay,” she said with a nod.

Hux’s face dropped. “Fuck, really?”

“Language, this is still a place of business,” Jannah said, stepping toward Rey. 

“Wait, _now_?” Hux lurched to his feet.

Jannah opened the door to their lab and Rey stepped through it, feeling all kinds of nervous and jittery. “You okay?” her boss asked once the door was closed. 

Rey shook out her hands and nodded. “Yeah. I—I probably should have done this sooner.”

Jannah squeezed her shoulder. “It’s still a man’s world out here, Rey Johnson.”

\--

Later that night, after work, everyone went out for dinner: Rose, Rey, Kaydel, Finn, Jess, Jess’s girlfriend Korr Sella, and Kaydel’s latest piece of arm candy, Talli Lintra. They toasted to Hux’s demise—he wouldn’t get fired yet though he was on probation, but he was off immediately taken off Rey’s project and would no longer be sharing a lab space with her—and Rey’s _very near_ end to her thesis paper.

After the appetizers had been gobbled up and beers and sodas gulped down, Rey got to her feet. “So, since there’s been gossip apparently—” she paused to glare at Rose, the most suspect of them all, “I may as well come out and tell you. I am dating someone.”

Everyone gasped in mock surprise.

“And I talked with him earlier, and we figured it probably wouldn’t hurt to tell you. Though I was pretty much totally against telling you all this up until tonight.”

“You don’t have to,” Finn said.

“Really, we’ll stop gathering around the watering hole,” Jess agreed with Finn.

Rey chuckled. “It’s okay. I think. I liked having something that was mine, but I don’t mind telling you all if it will make you stop bugging me about it.”

Kaydel gently tapped the table. “Tell us!” It started a small chant and Rey was beginning to regret her decision. 

“Shhh! Shhh, please,” she said, glancing around. No one was really paying attention. It was two days until Christmas, there were sports on the TV behind the bar and everyone was being just as loud as they were. “Okay, okay. I’m going out with Ben Solo.”

Rose let out a whistle. “Whoa. He’s big.” Finn elbowed her in the ribs and she instantly cooed, slipping her hand around his arm and resting her head in his shoulder. “Sorry, babe. I met him when he came through the lab with Ackbar. He is…massive. A giant.”

“I get it,” Finn chuckled.

“It all makes sense now,” Jess said. “I had a feeling. I may have been the one Hux overheard.”

Rey sat down. “Jess!”

“What?! I couldn’t help it. It was that one night he came to work. Remember? I had a _feeling_.”

Rey scoffed and drank her soda, wishing it was spiked with something. A few minutes of babbling conversation about her boyfriend and they moved on. They didn’t immediately accuse her of sleeping her way into money or NASA royalty, nor did they bring up her young age. They just screeched about him for three minutes and then started talking about holiday travel plans.

Her fears had been totally unwarranted, but she wouldn’t take it back. She thoroughly enjoyed having Ben all to herself for almost three months. And now, now she was even happier, because she could tell her friends about him.

Not everything, of course, but a few things. She was still _Rey_ , she’d still selfishly keep things to herself, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t invite him to get-togethers like this in the future, or mention him casually in conversation.

Sitting back in her seat, Rey let herself just be happy. 

She checked her phone after the food had arrived and found a text from Ben:

> **How’d it go?**
> 
> _Disastrously. I got fired, everyone yelled at me._ 😖
> 
> _I’m kidding of course. It was fine. You were right._
> 
> **I was?**
> 
> _Nobody cared about your family’s money or anything._
> 
> **I’m very glad they didn’t. I didn’t want you to have to go through anything bad because you chose me.**
> 
> _I did choose you, didn’t I?_
> 
> **Last I checked.**
> 
> _I’m glad I did._


	9. IX.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A soft epilogue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of an epilogue, a little bit just to wrap things up.
> 
> I really hope y'all have enjoyed this! I'm so glad I was able to finally write it and share it with you all.
> 
> Thank you for all your support!

**IX.** ****

Rey never got tired of looking at Ben.

So whenever he made of point of hiding his face from her, she protested. Like when he drove them to some mysterious location outside of the city at night and told her to close her eyes when she got out of the car.

She did, finding his hand to hold and stepping onto soft earth. Dirt and grass?

Ben moved behind her and slid his hands over her eyes, holding her close. “Keep walking.”

Rey hesitated but did and they shuffled forward. “I’m trusting you. Did you come out here to kill me and bury the body where no one will find me?” Her hands stretched out in front of her, grasping at nothing.

“No,” Ben chuckled. She could feel his laughter through his chest. “I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

Rey let him guide her and they stopped a couple dozen steps from the car. Ben pressed a kiss to her hair and removed his hands from her face, resting them on her shoulders.

There was a blanket spread out on the short grass, held down with a wicker picnic basket, a bright camping lamp, and a white and black standing telescope. “When did this all get here?” Rey asked.

“Poe set it up and he left just before we got here,” Ben explained, walking forward. He opened the basket and offered her one of the wine coolers inside. He wasn’t going to drink, but she always was the first to reach for alcohol, so he’d come prepared.

“Thank you,” Rey said, taking it from him. It was early March and still relatively warm, but the nights often dipped into the forties. She was glad she was wearing a jacket.

“There’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight, we should be able to see it,” Ben said, helping her over to the blanket. 

She sat down cross legged, tucking her drink in her lap, and tilting her head toward the telescope. “And what’s that?”

Ben flushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “A present? I didn’t own one but I thought it may be fun. Away from the city, we should be able to see a lot of stars.”

They _were_ far away from the city. It was quiet, more quiet than even his apartment, with the running fridge and the pipes cracking and creaking in the walls. It was really nice.

“You really set this all up for me? For us?” Rey asked, her hand inching toward his. He offered up his palm and she laced her fingers between his, pulling their clasped hands to her chest and holding them there over her fast-beating heart.

“Yep. It’s been five months since we met,” he added.

“Has it?” Rey tilted her head toward the sky. “Usually people celebrate six month anniversaries. And we’ve only been together for four months.”

“Does it matter? Time is a social construct.” 

Rey scoffed and reached out with her free hand, resting it against his face. “You’re funny, Ben Solo,” she mused before she leaned in to kiss him. 

“Thanks,” he said against her lips, brushing his knuckles down her cheek. “If you keep kissing me we’re gonna miss the meteors.”

With a cheeky grin, she kissed him one more time and then they scooted down to lay next to each other on the hard ground. The blanket offered no protection except from the dirt, but Rey could have laid there all night with him next to her, hands clasped. It was cheesy, it was irrational, and she couldn’t help herself.

She was _happy_. It was a good thing.

They didn’t say much even as the shower began. Rey hadn’t actually ever seen a live meteor shower before, and she squeezed Ben’s hand, nuzzling her chin against his shoulder as the streaks ran across the sky. For once, she didn’t say anything, even as her brain brimmed with facts about shooting stars and meteors and equations and orbits—she was content to just stay quiet for fifteen minutes until the last streaked across the sky.

Ben could have fallen asleep right there, as relaxed as he was. He wanted to stay with her in this moment so he squeezed her hand and kept as quiet as she was. He was glad to be with her and relieved that she hadn’t thought his late night picnic was a bad idea.

“Hey, Ben,” Rey said softly once the sky got quiet. She propped herself up on her elbow and laid her hand over his chest.

Ben wrapped his arm around her, resting his hand on her hip, his other tucked under his head like a pillow. “Yeah?”

The light was strange from the lantern, both too bright and not bright enough. He couldn’t really make out her face, but she could make out his, even with her torso blocking most of the illumination.

His face was her favorite face to look at. She traced her eyes and fingertips over it: eyebrows, nose, cheeks, mouth, pressing her thumb to his plush lips before dipping down to kiss him.

She brushed her nose against his when she pulled back, settling her head in her hand. “I love you,” she said with complete certainty as if she’d said it a thousand times before. She hadn’t. She had never said it to anyone before.

A genuine smile slid onto Ben’s face. His lifted his hand and gently tangled his fingers in her hair, cupping her jaw. “You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met,” he told her. “I love you, too.”

She smiled and kissed him with a bit more passion, tossing a leg over his and parting his lips with her tongue. She scooted up higher, only to kick over her open wine cooler.

“Shit,” she grumbled as they scrambled to right it before it soaked more of the blanket. Rey took it from Ben’s hand and chugged the half that was left before she set it aside. Ben blinked at her. 

“So it doesn’t happen again,” she replied with a shrug. She leaned in to kiss him one last time—she would definitely never get enough of that, she knew, not even _years_ of kissing Ben Solo would be enough—and then she got to her feet.

“Can we look at the stars?” she asked, holding out her hand for him.

Ben shook his head a little, and took it, standing and joining her as she leaned down to squint through the telescope’s eyepiece. He ran his hand down her spine, settling it on her lower back. “What do you see?” he asked.

Rey blinked back tears and turned her head so she could see him out of the corner of her eye, his gaze turned toward the sky. “Everything,” she said softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are no active meteor showers in March, but we don’t need to google this because this is a fanfiction.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can check out [my twitter here](https://twitter.com/hunkbuster), where I post lots of stuff about Reylo, writing woes, and the occasional twitfic!


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